SEOUL, March 29 (Reuters) - South Korea said on Thursday it may resume regular food aid to impoverished North Korea in late May after Seoul suspended shipments last year following Pyongyang's missile and nuclear tests. Millions of North Koreans face hunger and malnutrition from a food shortage of nearly 1 million tonnes, the World Food Programme (WFP) said on Wednesday following a visit there. "I believe it may be possible to ship the aid in late May, when we consider (the availability of) means of transport," Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung told reporters. It resumed regular shipments of fertiliser this week after Pyongyang agreed at international talks in February to start shutting its atomic arms programme. Seoul also resumed a one-off flood aid package on Wednesday that included rice. South Korea in previous years sent up to 500,000 tonnes of rice in direct aid to the North, which battles chronic food shortages and suffered a famine in the late 1990s that some estimate killed up to 10 percent of its 23 million people. The two Koreas will likely reach a formal agreement on resuming the rice aid when their officials meet on April 18 to discuss joint commercial and economic projects, Lee said. For years, critics have also called on Seoul to provide greater checks on the food it provides to the North, saying South Korea does not do enough to make sure the aid does not end up in the hands of the country's powerful military.
