SEOUL, (AFP) -- South Korea announced Sunday it would ship 100,000 tons of rice and other "humanitarian" aid worth 230 million dollars to flood-hit North Korea beginning late this month.

The unification ministry's official confirmation of the aid package came a day after inter-Korean Red Cross talks aimed at helping the North recover from last month's devastating floods, which official media said left hundreds dead or missing.

Relief goods included 100,000 tonnes of rice, 100,000 tons of cement, 210 dump trucks or other construction equipment, 10,000 first aid kits and 80,000 blankets, the ministry said in a statement.

The package, worth some 220 billion won (230 million dollars), is "purely humanitarian" in response to aid appeals from civic organizations and politicians at home, it said.

South Korea, a long-time aid donor to its impoverished communist neighbor, had suspended regular aid shipments after the North test-fired missiles on July 5 that sparked international anger and condemnation.

North Korea, at Red Cross talks held at its Mount Kumgang resort Saturday, "repeatedly expressed gratitude" over the planned aid shipment, the statement said, adding the shipment will begin from late August.

In mid-July, the central and southern parts of the North were hit hard by torrential rain and landslides.

The state-run (North) Korean Central News Agency said at the time that "hundreds" of people were dead or missing although one humanitarian group in the South put the toll of dead or missing at more than 50,000.

South Korea estimated Friday that last month's floods must have deprived North Korea of at least 100,000 tons of grain, increasing this year's shortfalls to at least 1.66 million tons.

North Korea's devastating flood damage is often blamed on its bare hillsides, stripped of tree cover by impoverished residents looking for fuel and particularly vulnerable to landslides.

Seoul has already provided some 10 million dollars to civic groups here to help them buy aid to be sent to the North.

North Korea, which suffered a devastating famine in the 1990s, has relied for the past decade on outside help to feed its 23 million people.

The South's planned aid came aimd U.S. media reports that the North may be preparing to conduct an underground nuclear test. Seoul has reportedly stepped up its monitoring of Pyongyang's nuclear activities.

North Korea had requested 500,000 tons of rice from South Korea for this year, but South Korea said it will not comply until the North rejoins stalled international talks on ending its nuclear weapons program.

North Korea has been boycotting the six-nation talks, which also involve South Korea, Japan, China, Russia and the United States, since November over U.S. financial sanctions imposed against it.