South Korea's Red Cross Suspends Projects With North After Nuke Test

South Korea's Red Cross cut off projects in cooperation with North Korea to provide humanitarian aid and to assist families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War due to recent North Korean nuclear test.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — South Korea's Red Cross suspended cooperation with North Korea to provide humanitarian aid and to assist families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War over the recent nuclear test conducted by Pyongyang, local media reported Wednesday.

"[Due to the North's nuclear test], there has been no progress over our projects on separated families and humanitarian assistance with North Korea," a Red Cross official was quoted as saying by the Yonhap news agency.

According to the Red Cross, currently, over 66,000 South Koreans aged over 80 years old have no means of keeping in contact with their relatives who live in North Korea.

The Korean Red Cross has recorded video messages for their relatives in North Korea from about 10,000 South Koreans whose families were separated by the 1950-1953 Korean War. However, these videos can not be delivered, as inter-Korean relations have deteriorated following Pyongyang's nuclear test on January 6.

South and North Korea officially remain at war, as no peace treaty was signed after the Korean War.

North Korea declared itself a nuclear power in 2005 and conducted nuclear tests in 2006, 2009 and 2013, having earlier withdrawn from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty that it ratified in 1985.