SEOUL, July 3 (Xinhua) -- Humanitarian aid from South Korea was permitted to be sent to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Thursday, said a South Korean government official on Friday.

    It was the first delivery of humanitarian aid between the South and the North after the South Korean government halted the shipment following the North's launch of a long-range rocket in early April.

    "With the government's approval, three patches of construction stuffs provided by National Movement for Mutual Aid, worth 10 million Korean Won, were shipped to the North," said an official from the Unification Ministry, according to South Korea's Yonhap News Agency.

    A civil aid group of "Peace 3000"will also send electricity transformer and beans to Pyongyang, said the official, adding that an aid group "Children's Foundation" will also ship construction materials to the North.

    South Korea restricted non-governmental trips to DPRK after the DPRK launched a long-range rocket in early April. The restriction expanded to humanitarian aid workers and their cargo trucks following the DPRK's nuclear test on May 25.

    The South Korean Unification Ministry announced on June 30 to lift the ban gradually in the coming week.