"This is totally different in nature from the provision of rice to the North in the form of a loan," the Yonhap news agency quoted Lee Jae-joung as saying.
The minister has consistently stressed that Seoul will not resume rice supplies to North Korea until Pyongyang meets the demands put forward at the February round of six-nation talks.
Seoul made it clear earlier that it would cooperate with North Korea, and plans to supply 400,000 metric tons of rice as part of a 30 year $150 million loan with an initial delivery of 50,000 metric tons of fuel oil.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization said previously that North Korea faces serious food shortages this year and will need an additional 500,000 tons of rice.
Bilateral relations between the two Koreas were disrupted after Pyongyang conducted a nuclear test in October 2006. Dialogue was resumed when North Korea agreed to stop its nuclear reactor and give IAEA inspectors access to the country in a six-party agreement on February 13.
However, the communist nation insisted that it would not start denuclearization until $25 million frozen in the Banco Delta Asia in Macao are released.
Macao authorities said Thursday that procedures to transfer North Korean funds are scheduled to begin later in the day, Japan's Kyodo Tsushin news agency reported.
The agency said the funds were expected to be transferred through the New York Federal Reserve and Russia's central bank to a Russian bank where North Korea holds accounts.
Yonhap also quoted Christopher Hill, Washington's chief negotiator in nuclear talks with North Korea, as saying Wednesday he suspected "a lot of things will happen between now and Monday" when he is due in Beijing for talks with his Chinese, and possible North Korean, counterparts.
A solution to the problem would pave the way for the resumption of six-nation talks. Pyongyang has promised to stop its only nuclear reactor, provide lists of other nuclear facilities and give access to IAEA inspectors to the country in exchange for energy supplies and other concessions.
