NKorea’s vulnerable

GENEVA - North Korea’s most vulnerable risk starvation after it slipped deeper into isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic and UN sanctions imposed for its nuclear and missile programs should be eased, a UN rights investigator said in report seen by Reuters.

The worsening humanitarian situation could turn into a crisis and it is coinciding with a global “creeping apathy” about the plight of North Korea’s people, said Tomas Ojea Quintana, UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Democratic People’s

Republic of Korea.

“Sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council should be reviewed and eased when necessary to both facilitate humanitarian and lifesaving assistance and to enable the promotion of the right to an adequate standard of living of ordinary citizens,” he said in a final report to the UN General Assembly, to be presented on October 22.

North Korea does not recognise Ojea Quintana’s mandate or cooperate with him and its mission in Geneva did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The government in Pyongyang does not take questions from foreign media.

Leader Kim Jong Un in June said the food situation was “tense” because of natural disasters last year and acknowledged that citizens had faced sacrifices during the pandemic.

In April, North Korean officials called a UN report on child malnutrition a “sheer lie”.

North Korea has not reported any COVID-19 cases and has imposed strict anti-virus measures, including border closures and domestic travel curbs.

But many North Koreans relying on commercial activities along the border with China have lost their incomes, and that has been compounded by the impact of sanctions, Mr Ojea Quintana said.

“People’s access to food is a serious concern and the most vulnerable children and elderly are at risk of starvation,” he said, adding that North Koreans “should not have to choose between the fear of hunger and the fear of COVID-19”.

“Essential medicines and medical supplies are in short supply and prices have increased several fold as they stopped coming in from China, and humanitarian organisations have been unable to bring in medicines and other supplies.”

Most diplomats and aid workers have left North Korea amid strict travel restrictions and a shortage of essential goods and health facilities, Mr Ojea Quintana said.

Progress in vaccination, women and children’s health and water and sanitation was eroding, he said.

“The current worsening hu