(RTTNews) - In what would be the first official assistance to North Korea for almost two years, South Korea has offered large amount of food and medicine as humanitarian aid.

The move follows a series of tension-easing and reconciliation-seeking signals by the North toward its neighbor in the South.

The South Korean aid, consisting of 10,000 tons of corn, 20 tons of milk powder and medicine, will be delivered through the Red Cross in North Korea, its counterpart in the South said in a press release Monday.

The materials are meant for "infants, children, pregnant women and other vulnerable people."

South Korea was responding to a North Korean request to this effect.

The amount of food aid on offer is far short of what the famine-hit reclusive Communist nation is in need of, according to the United Nations' estimate.

The South Korean administration of President Lee Myung-bak has promised major assistance to Pyongyang on condition that progress is made on North's de-nuclearization.

North has been defying all international concerns and warnings over its dubious nuclear programs, and ignoring previous bilateral agreements it signed with the US and agreements under the six-party talks.

Pressured by international sanctions, North Korea is reeling under economic and financial hardships.

The U.N. Sanctions effectively prevent North from exporting missiles and other arms. It has trade relations with only a few countries.

An aid of 50,000 tons of corn that South Korea offered last year was rejected by North amid high tensions.