South Korea Tuesday sent aid worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to help North Korea fight swine flu despite recent military tensions between the two sides.

Twenty trucks carrying 200,000 litres of hand sanitiser crossed the closely guarded frontier en route to the North's border town of Kaesong, Seoul's unification ministry said.

The sanitiser worth one billion won (863,000 dollars) follows Seoul's shipment in December of Tamiflu and Relenza, worth 15 million dollars and enough to treat 500,000 people.

The delivery of the anti-viral drugs marked Seoul's first government-level assistance to its impoverished communist neighbour for nearly two years.

North Korea in December reported nine cases of the (A)H1N1 virus but has not announced any deaths. Seoul officials and private groups suspect there are more cases and that the disease is spreading amid poor health conditions.

Seoul-based welfare groups Good Friends in December reported about 50 deaths in the North.

Pyongyang has sent mixed messages to its neighbour in recent months.

After a naval clash last November near the disputed Yellow Sea border, the North in January fired 370 shells into the sea close to the frontier in an apparent display of firepower.

Last week it announced new naval firing zones off its shores, banning shipping from them until Monday, although no firing was reported.

However, the North's military Monday proposed a date for talks on ways to ease cross-border access to a jointly-run industrial estate at Kaesong. The South has yet to agree a date or place for the meeting.

earlier related report
US, partners step up consultations on NKorea
Washington (AFP) Feb 22, 2010 - US special envoy Stephen Bosworth is due to leave Tuesday for China, South Korea and Japan amid a surge in diplomatic activity aimed at bringing North Korea back to nuclear disarmament talks.

In further consultations on North Korea, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will host a meeting in Washington on Friday with South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-Hwan, Clinton's spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters.

Bosworth, the special envoy for North Korea, and his chief negotiator Sung Kim will leave Washington on Tuesday for "stops in Beijing, Seoul and Tokyo" as part of the six-party disarmament process, Crowley said.

The two remaining members in the negotiating process are Russia and North Korea, but Crowley said there were no plans for Bosworth and Kim to visit those countries.

No dates were given for Bosworth and Kim's visits to the three Asian capitals, but a State Department official told reporters that one of the two US envoys was due to return in time for the Clinton-Yu meeting on Friday.

In Seoul, the foreign ministry said Monday that South Korea's nuclear envoy Wi Sung-Lac will visit Beijing this week for talks with Chinese officials about bringing North Korea back to six-party disarmament talks.

North Korea bolted the talks in April last year after it was censured by the United Nations for launching a long-range rocket.

Wi will stay in Beijing Tuesday and Wednesday to meet Chinese officials who held talks with their North Korean counterparts two weeks ago.

The Chinese will brief Wi on the meetings, a ministry spokesman told AFP, and they will also discuss ways to bring Pyongyang back to the six-party forum, which it quit last April.

China, host of the stalled nuclear talks, has tried to persuade its close ally North Korea to return to the table.

Pyongyang, which tested atomic weapons in October 2006 and May 2009, has set two conditions for resuming the nuclear dialogue -- the lifting of UN sanctions and a US commitment to discuss a formal peace treaty.

The 1950-53 war ended only in an armistice.

Washington, Seoul and Tokyo say the North must return unconditionally and show commitment to scrapping its nuclear program before other issues are dealt with.