By Ryu Jin
Staff Reporter

A South Korean cargo plane will Friday leave for North Korea carrying emergency relief goods for victims of last week’s catastrophic train explosion, the nation’s Red Cross officials said on Thurday.

Loaded with medical kits and other relief supplies worth $470,000 (550 million won), the chartered airplane will depart around noon for Sunan Airport in Pyongyang via a direct inter-Korean air route over the West Sea.

The planned airlift of relief supplies, which was previously rejected by the North, is the second batch of aid package Seoul promised to offer for the thousands of North Koreans injured or made homeless by the April 22 blast at Ryongchon railway station. At least 161 people were killed and 1,300 more injured in the tragic accident.

South Korea plans to use a total of $25 million (30 billion won) in aid to help recovery efforts in the North Korean town of Ryongchon, near the North’s border with China.

``Our assistance to the North will stand somewhere between $24 million and $25 million,’’ Unification Minister Jeong Se-hyun said in a press briefing. ``It’s four times higher than the total aid given from the rest of the international community worth $6.6 million.’’

In an emergency meeting with their Southern counterparts on Tuesday, North Korean officials asked for equipment and other materials needed for reconstruction, but politely refused Seoul’s offer to send aid workers.

Jeong said most of the equipment, such as excavators and dump trucks, and other materials, will be sent in the coming two weeks.

In the meantime, a South Korean cargo ship loaded with emergency relief goods such as first-aid medicines arrived at the North’s western port of Nampo on Thurday morning.

Han Kwang, a 1,534-ton freighter, set sail early Wednesday to deliver the first batch of relief supplies, including instant noodles and blankets.

``The relief goods are expected to reach the accident site, Ryongchon, which is some 250 kilometers away from the port, within the day,’’ an official at Hanjin Transportation Co., the shipping firm, said.

Seoul had proposed to send the relief goods via a direct land route across the heavily fortified border as it could cut the delivery by more than 10 hours. The North balked at the offer, apparently out of fear that its isolated residents may be exposed to the outside world.

jinryu@koreatimes.co.kr