South Korea granted dozens of private organizations the right to send roughly $1.24 million in humanitarian aid to North Korea, including COVID-19-related items, tuberculosis medicine, powdered milk and bread.

During an annual audit on governmental institutions, South Korea’s Ministry of Unification announced on Thursday that it approved aid projects for 31 privately-run humanitarian aid projects between January and September of this year. 

These organizations have the green light to send a collective total of 1.44 billion won ($1.24 million) of goods, and some have already gotten started.

The aid projects were approved despite the abrupt