The government decided Sunday to provide emergency aid to North Korea following last week's massive train yard explosion.
Tokyo is planning to give Pyongyang medical relief supplies worth $100,000 through international organizations.
It is making arrangements to this end with the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, government officials said.
Foreign Ministry officials said the government has yet to decide how and when to provide the aid, but wants to implement the plan as soon as possible.
This will mark Japan's first aid to North Korea since it decided in October 2000 to offer the North 500,000 tons of rice at the request of the U.N. Food Program.
"Considering the casualties and damage of the accident and the urgency to deal with the situation, we will proceed with the aid from a humanitarian standpoint," an official said.
More than 150 people, including some 70 elementary school students, were killed and more than 1,300 injured in Thursday's train yard explosion in Ryongchon, North Phyongan Province.
Providing aid to North Korea is a politically sensitive issue in Japan.
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