North Korea on Wednesday asked for 300,000 tons of fertilizer in aid, the Unification Ministry said, days after the two Koreas agreed to resume humanitarian projects.

"Chang Chae-on, president of the North's Red Cross, sent a fax message to his South Korean counterpart Han Wan-sang demanding 300,000 tons of fertilizer and wanting to know how much in what type," said Yang Chang-seok, a spokesman for the ministry.

Yang said the two sides will work out the details for the shipment, saying it will be sent to the communist country in late March or early April.

"It usually takes about one month to ship 100,000 tons of fertilizer to the North, and fertilizer costs about 360,000 won (US$360) a ton," Yang said. He estimated the amount of money for the aid at 100 billion won. "The government earmarked 108 billion won for that purpose this year."

Last week, the two Koreas held the first ministerial meeting in seven months and agreed to put inter-Korean projects back on track.

But they made no direct mention of when to resume fertilizer and rice aid in a joint statement.

South Korean officials had said Red Cross officials will discuss resuming fertilizer aid, while the resumption of rice aid will be tackled at a new round of economic talks to be held in Pyongyang on April 18-21.

Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung, South Korea's point man on North Korea, said North Korea requested 400,000 tons of rice and 300,000 tons of fertilizer in aid for this year during the Cabinet-level meeting.

Since the historic inter-Korean summit between then South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, South Korea has given North Korea about 500,000 tons of rice and some 350,000 tons of fertilizer on average annually.

Seoul, March 7 (Yonhap News)