Seoul - North Korea may accept food aid from South Korea if the aid comes from a non-governmental organization, the South Korean Ministry of Unification said Wednesday.

North Korea has declined any food aid from South Korea since inter-Korean relations were further strained when a South Korean tourist was shot to death by a North Korean soldier in July.

"North Korea expressed its intent to receive food but under the condition the donor is a certain South Korean NGO," ministry spokesman Kim Ho-Nyun said in a press briefing.

The South Korean government however still remains undecided on whether it should resume its food aid to North Korea.

The government has denied the possibility of immediate food aid, as long as North Korea does not ask South Korea for help, and as long as Seoul is not yet fully convinced that the situation in North Korea is really the "worst in a decade."

Seoul has faced a growing demand to resume food aid on a humanitarian basis.

"We must separate politics from humanitarian needs," said Chung Eui-Hwa, a lawmaker of a ruling party. "It was not the starving North Korean people who must be held accountable for the shooting of South Korean tourist."

South Korean food aid for North Korea may help warm the cool inter-Korean relations.

"Just giving the unilateral concession (for the North) could be a good way of warming the ties with North Korea," said Suh Jae-Jin, director at the research institute under the Ministry of Unification.

South Korean NGOs say Seoul should take the initiative to help the starving North Koreans.

"If we raise one dollar, the government may help us with nine dollars, for instance. Then, we can brand it as an private food aid and ship it out to the North. Of course, our delivery must be supported with the (World Food Organization) WFO-level of monitoring whether the food goes to feed the North Korean people," ChristianNGO has said in a statement.

In May, Seoul offered 50,000 tons of corn to North Korea, which was rejected by Pyongyang. The Seoul government has reportedly considered delivering the corn to North Korea through the WFO.

The United Nations food agency Tuesday made an urgent appeal for 60 million dollars in emergency aid to North Korea, saying the food crisis in some areas of the impoverished nation was the worst in a decade. (dpa)