Swedish ambassador to UN stresses need for humanitarian aid to North Korea

Posted on : 2018-11-23 15:47 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
Olof Skoog says sanctions must not interfere with helping North Koreans in need
Swedish Ambassador to the UN Olof Skoog stresses the need for humanitarian aid to North Korea after a UN Security Council meeting in New York on Nov. 21.
Swedish Ambassador to the UN Olof Skoog stresses the need for humanitarian aid to North Korea after a UN Security Council meeting in New York on Nov. 21.

On Nov. 21, the UN Security Council convened at the UN Headquarters in New York and was briefed on the situation in North Korea in connection with humanitarian aid. After this meeting, Swedish Ambassador to the UN Olof Skoog stressed the need for humanitarian aid to North Korea and said that conditions in the North are severe.

Skoog met with the press after being briefed by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on Wednesday. Skoog was quoted by the Deutsche Presse-Agentur news agency as saying that there’s a great need for humanitarian aid to North Korea. Skoog expressed concern that the UN Security Council’s sanctions against the North could have a negative indirect impact on the North Korean people and said that specific products should be exempted.

In connection with this, the Voice of America reported that Skoog cited reports indicating that sanctions are having a negative indirect effect on humanitarian aid even though the UN Security Council’s resolutions contain an exception for such aid. Skoog said that while the North Korean regime bears the primary responsible for the worsening humanitarian situation in the country, that does not relieve the international community of its responsibility to provide North Koreans with the support they need to stay alive.

When asked about reports that the US government has recently delayed requests to provide exemptions for humanitarian aid to the North, Skoog declined to comment about specific countries on the ground, saying that’s a matter to be discussed by the North Korea sanctions committee.

Skoog said that while the member states of the UN Security Council are firm in their resolve to maintain sanctions on North Korea, that should not be equated with support for hurting ordinary North Koreans.

Sweden has an embassy in North Korea and handles American interests in the country in matters such as consular services. Now that Sweden has openly advocated humanitarian aid to North Korea while the North and the US are arranging high-level talks aimed at organizing a second summit early next year, attention is shifting to what steps the US and the rest of the international community will take in the future.

By Hwang Joon-bum, Washington correspondent

Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]

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