SEOUL - SOUTH Korean farmers urged their government on Thursday to resume regular food aid to North Korea as they prepared to send their own rice shipment to the impoverished neighbor.

Seoul was a major aid donor to the North when it sought detente on the divided peninsula under two previous liberal administrations.

But the aid stopped after conservative, pro-US President Lee Myung-bak took office last year with criticism of unconditional assistance to the North.

On Wednesday, South Korea's largest farmers' organisation - the liberal-leaning Korean Peasants League - called for legislation that authorizes regular rice shipments to the North - a measure aimed at shielding humanitarian aid from political tensions.

Spokesman Kim Ho-nyeon of the Unification Ministry, which handles relations with the North, said the government is not considering legislation.

The group issued the appeal as it prepared to send 191 tons of its own rice aid to the North. The shipment is scheduled to leave Friday.

'Rice provision to the North is an inevitable policy for peaceful inter-Korean relations,' said league activist Song Won-kyu during a press conference in front of the Unification Ministry.

Farmers later trucked rice sacks - stamped with 'Unification Rice' on them - to the port of Incheon, west of Seoul, for loading onto a ship.

They chanted slogans, such as 'Resume aid provision to the North immediately.' The halting of aid and other hard-line moves by Mr Lee's government last year angered the communist regime, prompting it to suspend reconciliation talks and some landmark joint projects.

North Korea has recently replaced at least five economic ministers in what analysts say is an attempt to revive the nation's economy after losing South Korean aid.

Despite the lack of government-level aid, civic groups in South Korea have occasionally sent food and other assistance to the North.

North Korea has relied on foreign handouts to feed its 23 million population since mismanagement and natural disasters devastated its economy in the mid-1990s.

Previous South Korean administrations sent some 400,000 tons of rice per year to the North, most taken from a government stockpile of rice purchased from farmers to support the market.

The two sides fought the 1950-53 Korean War that ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, leaving the peninsula still technically at war. -- AP