UN backs plan to unblock humanitarian aid to DPRK

World
Europe

The UN Security Council on Monday approved US-drafted measures aimed at ensuring that tough sanctions on the DPRK do not impede deliveries of humanitarian aid to the country.

Nearly half of DPRK’s population - 10 million people - is undernourished, according to UN officials, who have reported a drop in food production last year.

UN resolutions specify that sanctions should not affect humanitarian aid, but relief organizations argue that strict trade and banking measures are creating bureaucratic obstacles and slowing down the flow of vital supplies.

United Nations Security Council adopts a resolution to impose new sanctions on the DPRK, December 22, 2017. /VCG Photo

The United States last month proposed new guidelines to allow aid groups and UN agencies to quickly obtain exemptions from the council committee that oversees implementation of sanctions.

After weeks of negotiations, the proposal was approved on Monday.

Dutch Deputy UN Ambassador Lise Gregoire-van Haaren, whose country chairs the sanctions committee, said the guidelines will hopefully "provide clarity on delivering humanitarian aid to the people of the DPRK without violating sanctions."

"Our ultimate goal is the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, and the sanctions are very important to that end," she said.

A notice will be sent to the UN's 193 member-states by the committee "to provide a clear explanation" of the procedure for exemptions which will "improve the delivery of humanitarian assistance" to the DPRK, a committee document said.

The United States has rebuffed calls from China and Russia to ease sanctions, urging instead that maximum pressure be maintained to compel DPRK leader Kim Jong Un to follow through on his pledge to denuclearize the Korean peninsula.

A US official said the guidelines would ensure that "only critical, life-saving humanitarian activities needed in the DPRK can continue" and that requests for exemptions will undergo a detailed review.

(Top image: DPRK leader Kim Jong Un visits a catfish plant in this undated photo released by the DPRK's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on August 5, 2018. /VCG Photo)

Source(s): AFP