SEOUL, June 30 (Reuters) - South Korea on Saturday sent the first shipment of regular rice aid to North Korea in two years after the communist state pledged to begin implementing a nuclear disarmament deal, a port authority official said.

South Korea refused to give the aid last year after the North defied international warnings and test-fired a barrage of missiles in July and deepened tensions with its first nuclear test in October. The last shipment was sent in December 2005.

South Korea has said it was ready to provide the North with 400,000 tones of rice this year. The first shipment of 3,000 tonnes left the port of Gunsan bound for Nampo on the North's west coast, a port official said by telephone.

South Korea is in two-day talks with the North on a separate shipment of heavy fuel oil under the Feb. 13 six-party deal also signed by the United States, Japan, Russia and China on shutting down the North's nuclear facilities in return for energy aid.

North Korea has long struggled with chronic food shortages because of mismanaged farm policy and bad weather. It has relied on handouts from the South in past years to feed its people.

Aid agencies have said the North's farm production falls short of what is needed by as much as 1 million tonnes a year and possibly more. South Korea has provided up to 500,000 tonnes a year in the past.

Critics say Seoul does not provide as much monitoring for the distribution of the food it provides as the U.N. World Food Programme, making it more likely the rice will end up in the hands of the North's powerful military.

South Korean Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung said last week monitoring will be stepped up.

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