SEOUL, Aug 17 (Reuters) - South Korea will send emergency aid worth 7.1 billion won ($7.5 million) to impoverished North Korea, where floods have left hundreds dead or missing and made more than 300,000 homeless, a minister said on Friday. North Korea and the United Nations said more than a week of heavy rain has ruined crops and farmland in a country that does not produce enough food to feed itself, even with a good harvest. "Considering the large-scale damage and the urgency of the people who have been displaced, we plan to provide the emergency aid as swiftly as possible," Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung said. "The flood damage in the North is heartbreaking." The initial package of instant food, water, medicine, blankets and other supplies will be sent both by ship and land, Lee said. Seoul also plans to provide additional aid later, including equipment needed for recovery work, he added. The government will discuss details of transporting the aid with South Korea's Red Cross and with the North, he said. North Korea's official media has said more than 11 percent of its paddy and maize fields were submerged, buried or swept away as heavy rains have saturated the lower half of the country. The resulting flooding has destroyed hundreds of bridges, thousands of buildings and washed away railroads. An expert on the North's agricultural economy said the state would be hit hard by the losses, but does not think it will slide back into famine because of increased grain production over the past several years. A famine in the mid-to-late-1990s is estimated to have killed as much as 10 percent of the 23 million population. The secretive North has shown footage of the flooding on its official TV broadcast, with residents walking through waist-deep water in capital Pyongyang and troops being called out to repair the damages. The North has made international appeals for help before when it has been hit by natural disasters. "The North has in effect declared the state of emergency," Lee said. ($1=945.9 Won)
