North Korea asked South Korea Thursday for food staples and cement after Seoul offered medicine, instant noodles and daily necessities for its neighbour's flood victims, officials said.

The North's Red Cross chairman Jang Jae-On sent a message to his counterpart in the South requesting food, cement and equipment for restoration work, Red Cross officials said.

In reply the South repeated its offer to provide emergency aid worth five billion won ($4.7 million) in the form of quilts, clothes and other daily necessities, medicine, nutritious meals and instant noodles.

Unification Ministry spokeswoman Lee Jong-Joo said the South's offer did not include food staples or cement but items that children and the most vulnerable would need the most.

South Korea has been reluctant to ship rice or cement to the North for fear it could be diverted to the 1.1-million-strong military.

Seoul made the aid offer Wednesday, the first such offer since the North's deadly attack on a South Korean island last November sent relations into a deep freeze.

"We hope that Red Cross authorities of the two sides wrap up consultations expeditiously so that flood aid can be delivered at the earliest possible date," the South's Red Cross said in a statement.

The North, which even in normal times struggles to feed its people, has reported dozens of casualties, thousands homeless and large areas of farmland flooded following a storm and torrential rain this summer.

The South's offer came amid signs of an easing of high cross-border tensions. Nuclear negotiators from the two sides held rare talks last month on the sidelines of a regional security meeting in Bali.

Official media in the communist state have said a tropical storm and heavy rain in June and July left dozens either dead, injured or missing, destroyed 2,900 homes and flooded more than 60,000 hectares (148,000 acres) of farmland.

Floods are common in North Korea, mainly because of its lack of disaster-control infrastructure and severe deforestation of hillsides.

earlier related report
Police bust online gang using N. Korea hackers
Seoul (AFP) Aug 4, 2011 - South Korean police said Thursday they had busted a criminal gang which used elite North Korean computer hackers to break into online game sites and steal prize points worth millions of dollars.

The North has been accused of several cyber-attacks on the South in recent years, but this was the first reported case of hacking for profit. Police said some of the proceeds apparently went to the regime in Pyongyang.

They said 17 South Koreans had stolen 6.4 billion won ($6.02 million) since June 2009 through the scam after hiring 30 North Korean hackers based in northeast China.

After a joint probe with intelligence authorities, police arrested five of the South Koreans on charges of creating and distributing illegal computer programmes to clients in China and South Korea.

The police International Crime Investigation Unit (ICIU) said it was investigating but not detaining another 10 members while two gang members were still at large.

The North Korean hackers -- graduates of top universities in Pyongyang -- created "auto programes" that could breach Korean online game servers and collect points exchangable for cash rewards, it said.

They were paid more than three billion won along with accommodation and living costs by the South Koreans.

"We've acquired testimony and evidence that some of the payments have been sent to North Korean authorities, including a state trading company," an ICIU investigator told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The company called "Rungrado" is known to have earned money for the communist regime, he said.

"This case proves North Korean hackers have been involved in various online criminal activities," the investigator said, adding other North Korean groups are also believed to have been involved in the games market.

South Korea, the world's most wired nation with more than 90 percent of homes connected to the Internet, has previously expressed concern about cyber attacks by Chinese and North Korean hackers.

Seoul accused Pyongyang of staging cyber attacks on websites of major South Korean government agencies and financial institutions in March this year and in July 2009.

In May South Korea said a North Korean cyber attack paralysed operations at one of its largest banks. North Korea reportedly maintains elite hacker units.

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