A ship carrying karaoke machines and goats as well as warm clothing and food donated by a private charity left South Korea for the poverty-stricken North on Wednesday.
A freighter carrying the unique cargo of 10 karaoke machines and 120 goats left the port of Inchon, west of Seoul, and was to arrive in the North Korean port of Nampo on Thursday, the Korean Sharing Movement (KSM) said.
The karaoke machines contain 4,000 South Korean and US pop songs, the charity said.
Other items on the Chinese-registered freighter included 60 tons of goat fodder, 45,500 bottles of cooking oil, 120 tons of flour, 17,000 sets of underwear, 325 boxes of winter garments and 2,562 boxes of stationery.
"With this aid donation, we are sending our brotherly love to North Koreans," Reverend Kim Joon-Kon of the KSM said at a ceremony at the Inchon port.
The KSM, which includes Buddhist, Christian and other groups, has highlighted the "bitter winter" conditions in the North where the authorities have admitted that a new food crisis is growing.
Hundreds of thousands of North Koreans have died from famine and related disease since 1995. One US congress report put the figure at more than two million dead.
North Korea is also suffering crippling power shortages. Foreign visitors to the North say nearly all buildings, including hospitals and orphanages, are freezing because of a lack of heating. North Korean negotiators recently demanded free power from the South during reconciliation talks.
The KSM shipment is worth nearly one million dollars and it has said it will send more over the next month. It has launched a campaign to send one million items of underwear to the North this month.
Churches and temples all over South Korea are involved in the campaign. A second shipment is due to leave next week.
It is the first time the obsessively guarded North Korean authorities have allowed in goods like karaoke machines. The communist regime normally strictly shields the population against foreign influences.
The karaoke machines were collected by electronics traders at a Seoul market who hoped to "contribute to inter-Korean reconciliation," said a KSM official.
The machines are to be installed at the Children's Palace in Pyongyang, a hub for indoctrination of young students in the communist country. Military songs were taken off the karaoke machines out of consideration of the North's sensitivities, the official said.
North Korea's economy has collapsed over the past decade, with the fall of the communist bloc in Europe -- SEOUL (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
