UNICEF resumes aid deliveries to north-east DPR Korea

Trucks bearing food and medicine from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) have begun a difficult four-day journey over mountain roads to deliver supplies to youngsters in the isolated provinces in the north-east of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).

Some 11 tons of therapeutic milk, 1.5 tons of therapeutic food for severely malnourished children and enough medicine for 400,000 people for three months are among the items being sent to the area.

This delivery is UNICEF’s first since Pyongyang cut off international agencies’ access to the provinces in late 2006. UNICEF Representative Gopalan Balagopal said, “It is now urgent we reach children as quickly as possible with life-saving support.”

According to an assessment on food security by the UN World Food Programme (WFP), there are many malnourished children in Hamgyong and Ryanggang, two north-eastern provinces struck by last year’s severe floods.

[UN News Centre]