UN sanctions complicating aid delivery to North Korea, warns UN's rights chief
The United Nations human rights chief says tough sanctions imposed on North Korea are complicating the delivery of desperately needed humanitarian aid.
The UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, told a special Security Council meeting on Monday that an estimated 18 million North Koreans suffered from acute food shortages and aid agencies provided "literally a lifeline" for 13 million of them.
"But sanctions may be adversely affecting this essential help," he said.
Sanctions that have tightened controls over international bank transfers "have caused a slowdown in UN ground operations, affecting the delivery of food rations, health kits and other humanitarian aid," the rights chief added.
Elsewhere in his remarks, the senior UN official asked the 15-member council to conduct an assessment of the human rights impact of sanctions and urged it to take action to minimize consequences.
The remarks come as the council's sanctions committee on North Korea is set to meet later on Monday to hear a briefing from a UN humanitarian official on the impact of recent punitive measures.
In October, UN Special Rapporteur Tomas Quintana warned that sanctions on North Korea over its missile and nuclear tests could affect the country’s ordinary citizens.
North Korea has been slapped with several rounds of UNSC sanctions since it conducted its first nuclear test in 2006. The US and the European Union have also imposed wide-ranging bans to isolate North Korea.
The UN imposed its toughest-ever sanctions on North Korea after Pyongyang test-fired new ballistic missiles in July and then conducted its most powerful nuclear test in September.
The Security Council has slapped export bans on coal, iron, lead, textiles and seafood, restricted joint ventures and blacklisted a number of North Korean companies.
However, the punitive measures have so far failed to stop the North’s nuclear weapons program. Pyongyang says it needs to continue and develop its military program as a deterrent in the face of hostile policies by the United States and its regional allies, including South Korea and Japan.
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