South Korea’s civilian aid to North Korea reached 9.9 billion won ($7.7 million) in May, according to the Unification Ministry.

The ministry said four civic groups, including the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI), gave 5.64 billion won ($4.39 million) worth of indirect aid to the North via the Korean National Red Cross (KNRC). Seven other groups sent medical and agricultural equipment, wheat and vinyl worth 4.35 billion won ($3.38 million) in aid to the poverty-stricken country.

"Civilian donations for the first five months of this year totaled 41.6 billion won ($32.4 million), nearly quadruple the 10.9 billion won ($8.48 million) during the same period last year," a government official said.

"This reflects the growing interest in North Korea since the inter-Korean summit last June."

The official also said 328 South Korean civilians traveled to North Korea in May on 27 occasions. The number of civilian visitors to North Korea for the first five months of the year reached 499, a 2.9-fold increase from 173 people a year ago.

"In May, government-backed aid to North Korea was $43.58 million," he said, adding that the Seoul government sent 35,000 tons of corn and 168,000 tons of fertilizer to the famine-stricken country via the World Food Program (WFP).