Will the US give new hope for humanitarian aid to North Korea?

The UN says up to 10 million people in the impoverished nation are in need of assistance, many of those being malnourished children

Aid organisation officials are keen to get back to work in the country amid reports the UN sanctions committee had approved ‘almost no projects’ in the past four months

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A North Korean boy holds a spade in a corn field. The US is set to review sanctions and a travel ban on the impoverished nation amid frustrations from aid organisations. Photo: Reuters

Published: 12:01pm, 31 Dec 2018Updated: 9:08pm, 31 Dec 2018

Humanitarian organisations hope to resume stalled projects in North Korea in 2019 as the United States indicates it may loosen a travel ban and sanctions that have hampered work in the country.

Despite an official exemption for humanitarian activities, aid workers have been repeatedly refused permission to travel and send basic sanitation and medical equipment to the impoverished nation.

In 2018, charities including Save the Children and Global Fund scaled back or ceased operations in North Korea, where the United Nations says more than 10 million people require humanitarian assistance.

One senior aid official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the UN Security Council’s North Korea sanctions committee had approved “almost no projects” in the past four months because the US was narrowly defining humanitarian need in relation to pandemics.

The overall country situation calls for more assistance, not less

Richard Blewitt

“We want to provide, for instance, water taps so we can lay piping and give access to clean water to rural clinics, poor people in communities as well as schools and other public venues,” the official said. “We need to import the taps and they have to go through the sanctions committee.”