South Korea announces $8 million in aid to North

SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea said Friday that it would provide $8 million in humanitarian aid to help North Korea’s malnourished children and pregnant women, as the North faces severe drought and a food crisis caused by its worst harvest in a decade.

The sum represents funds that the South had originally planned to donate in 2017, through the World Food Program and the United Nations Children’s Fund. But the donation was shelved after North Korea launched a ballistic missile over Japan that year and Shinzo Abe, Japan’s leader, argued for delaying it.

South Korea made it clear Friday that it did not regard the current stalemate in talks over the North’s nuclear program as a reason to deny the aid. “Our government’s position is that it will provide humanitarian assistance for North Korean people regardless of the political situation,” the country’s Unification Ministry said in a statement.

The World Food Program and the Food and Agriculture Organization announced this month that about 10 million North Koreans, or 40% of the population, were facing “severe food shortages” after the country suffered its worst harvest in a decade last fall.

North Korea said Wednesday that it was experiencing its worst drought in 37 years, raising fears that crops due to be harvested next month, like wheat and barley, will also suffer. No reports of widespread starvation have emerged from North Korea, which was ravaged by famine in the 1990s. But U.N. relief agencies have warned of a crisis in the coming months.