South Korea says it will provide vaccines against the hepatitis B virus for more than one million North Korean children.

A South Korean official at Seoul's Unification Ministry said Tuesday the vaccines, worth more than $932,000, will be delivered to the North through international relief agencies in the South as early as this month.

The announcement comes a week after South Korea authorized the resumption of nearly $7 million worth of medical aid to the communist country through the World Health Organization.

The decision is the latest sign of gradually improving relations between the two Koreas. Senior officials of both nations have met twice since July to discuss terms for a resumption of six-party talks on North Korea's controversial nuclear program.

Tensions between the two Koreas rose after Seoul accused Pyongyang of sinking a South Korean warship in March 2010, killing 46 people. Relations deteriorated further following a North Korean artillery attack on Yeonpyeong Island in the South in November last year.