From news reports North Korea, which was hit by torrential rain and flash floods last month, declined offers of aid from the International Red Cross and its South Korean branch, an official said. "We asked the North Korean government what it would need in terms of relief aid to help in their efforts to recover after last month's heavy rains," said Kim Hyung-sup, a spokesman at South Korea's National Red Cross. "North Korean authorities replied that while they appreciate the offer, they are able to manage on their own. I seriously doubt that." The International Committee of the Red Cross - to which the South Korean Red Cross belongs - also offered aid, which North Korea declined, Kim said. Up to 10,000 people are dead or missing in North Korea after the rains, a South Korean civic group claimed yesterday. Floods last week also damaged farmland, tens of thousands of shelters and public buildings. Hundreds of roads, bridges and railways were destroyed, it said. South Korea's former unification minister Jeong Se-hyun, who is now leading the nongovernmental Korean Council for Reconciliation and Cooperation, said North Korea is clearly facing a national crisis. Damage to the harvest across North Korea sparked concerns that its chronic food shortages may worsen again this year. Pyongyang, however, cannot bear to ask for help from South Korea or the international community because of tension, Jeong said. "It seems that North Korea is saying 'We'll receive things that others give, but we can't tell them to give,'" he said. North Korea canceled two festivals this month, citing relief efforts. It postponed its Arirang Festival, featuring its mass games, as well as an annual festival with South Korea to mark their independence from Japanese colonial rule at the end of World War II. "The biggest problem for North Korea will be food shortages, especially in winter and next year, because most of its farmlands were flooded," Kim said. "Water and medical supplies are likely to be in demand, either because of the wounded as well as concerns of infectious diseases that may spread in the aftermath of the rains." A South Korean civic group said Tuesday that it plans to provide emergency aid to North Koreans. The Join Together Society, a humanitarian aid group in Seoul, said it will send eight TEUs filled with relief goods, including 100 tons of flour, to the North from Aug. 3-9. TEUs, or 20-foot equivalent units, are a measure of containerized cargo capacity. It is the first time that a South Korean civic group is providing aid to the communist state since Seoul stopped all efforts in the wake of the North's recent missile tests and its ongoing boycott of six-way nuclear talks. North Korea has depended on outside aid since the 1990s. More than a million people have died from famine because of years of flooding, drought and economic mismanagement. One in three North Koreans is chronically malnourished and many are forced to scavenge for food, resorting to ferns, acorns, grass and seaweed. International food aid for North Korea reached 1.08 million tons last year, the world's second largest after Ethiopia's 1.1 million tons, according to the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization. South Korea sent 394,000 tons of food aid to North Korea last year.