South Korea considering food assistance for North Korea, official says

"Signaling South Korea may be attempting to cool tensions with its neighbor, Seoul has vowed to actively review sending humanitarian aid to North Korea through third channels," CNN reports. South Korea's Unification Minister Yu Woo-ik in a meeting with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday in New York "said he would consider the move amid growing concern over widespread malnutrition in North Korea," according to the news service.

The announcement comes after U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos "visited North Korea and urged the international community for increased support towards malnourished North Koreans," CNN writes. The news service adds, "The announcement is seen as a move to ease tensions between the North and South, but some analysts are skeptical," and quotes a professor from the University of North Korean Studies (Lee, 11/7).