Seoul, UNC discuss Tamiflu delivery to Pyongyang

South Korean cars transport 400,000 doses of Tamiflu and Relenza Rotadisk for about 100,000 people to North Korea near Dorasan Inter-Korea Transit Office in Paju, Gyeonggi Province in Dec. 18, 2009. Korea Times file

South Korea is in talks with the United Nations Command to discuss details on its long-delayed cross-border delivery of antiviral medication to North Korea, the unification ministry said Wednesday, raising expectations that the assistance could be handed over to the North soon.

"There have been delays with regard to the influenza treatment medication delivery to the North due to technical and practical preparatory issues, but now those things have almost been completed," Baik Tae-hyun, the ministry's spokesman, said at a regular press briefing.

"We are now in discussions with the UNC (on the medication provision)," he added. "We are also in talks with North Korea to fix a date for the delivery."

The UNC monitors the cease-fire on the Korean Peninsula and oversees such cross-border deliveries. The UNC should be informed 48 hours in advance of any plans to transport materials across the inter-Korean border.

Cho Myoung-gyon, right, South Korean Unification Minister, and Ri Son-gwon, chairman of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, take part in the groundbreaking ceremony for rail and road connection across border between South Korea and North Korea at Panmun Station in the North's border town of Gaeseong on Dec. 26, 2018. Xinhua-Yonhap

In December, the government announced the plan to send 200,000 doses of Tamiflu and other medical materials to North Korea, initially scheduled for Jan. 11, but it has been repeatedly put off for unclear reasons.

The ministry didn't say exactly what is holding up the delivery, but news reports have said that Seoul and Washington are discussing possible violations of sanctions in using trucks to transport the drugs.

Earlier, a foreign ministry official departed for the United States apparently for consultations over the delivery of the medication and other cross-border issues.

It is reported that around 150,000 North Korean people were confirmed to have been infected with influenza from late 2017 to early 2018.

Seoul provided around 400,000 doses of Tamiflu and 100,000 doses of the Relenza antiviral drug to North Korea in 2009. (Yonhap)

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