Sanctions hit aid in N. Korea, groups say
TOKYO — Sanctions aimed at punishing the North Korean regime are hampering the ability of aid groups to operate inside the country, triggering warnings that the international campaign is harming ordinary North Koreans.
Difficulties in obtaining supplies, including medical equipment, and in transferring money to fund aid programs could have a direct impact on health and nutrition levels throughout North Korea, they say.
“We need to deal with the nuclear problem, but we need to properly ponder our means for achieving that goal,” Tomas Ojea Quintana, the U.N.’s special rapporteur on North Korean human rights, said in an interview in Tokyo.
About 70 percent of the North Korean population is already categorized as “food insecure,” meaning constantly
struggling against hunger, and one in four children’s growth is stunted.
The sanctions could increase the levels of food insecurity and the incidence of acute malnutrition among children.
“These are not just statistics. This is reality in the DPRK,” Quintana said, using the abbreviation for North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. “It’s my responsibility to remind the Security Council that they should develop a comprehensive assessment of the possible impact of their sanctions. What is the concrete impact on humanitarian agencies working inside North Korea?”
The U.N.’s World Food Program, UNICEF, the World Health Organization and the U.N. Development Program all have operations in North Korea. A small number of American and other humanitarian agencies provide food, medical and agricultural assistance from bases outside the country.
But the waves of multilateral and direct American sanctions that have been imposed on Kim Jong Un’s regime after its missile launches and nuclear tests have now made operations so difficult that some agencies are pulling out. Save the Children has shut down its operations in Pyongyang, billing the move as a “temporary suspension.”
The difficulties have mounted as the crackdown has broadened from “smart sanctions” designed to cut off parts and funding for the nuclear weapons program to more general measures that are starting to look like a trade embargo.
President Donald Trump has vowed to use “maximum pressure” to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons program.
Sanctions imposed in September through the U.N. Security Council, at the United States’ instigation, banned North Korean exports of seafood, garments and coal, adding to previous prohibitions on commodities.
Japan, which holds the rotating presidency of the Security Council, is urging other member states to cut off humanitarian aid to North Korea.
The U.K. government announced that it would no longer send assistance to North Korea. “We will use whatever means we have to make clear our displeasure at the reckless provocations from Kim Jong Un,” Mark Field, the British minister of state for Asia, said last month.