Swordsmyth
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The United States is moving quickly to lift a freeze at the United Nations on humanitarian aid to North Korea, just weeks before a planned second US-North Korean summit, according to diplomats and documents obtained by AFP.At Washington's request, several applications from aid groups for exemptions to tough UN sanctions imposed on North Korea have been put on hold at a UN sanctions committee, some for as long as a year.
But in a shift, the US has over the past weeks allowed eight requests to get the green light from the committee for such items as solar pumps, plumbing parts, milk cans, tractor tires and children's trampolines.
The approvals could significantly ramp up humanitarian aid to North Korea, where the UN estimates that 10.5 million people, or 41 percent of the population, are undernourished, diplomats and aid groups said.
North Korea's food crisis combined with a high incidence of tuberculosis has alarmed relief groups at a time when Washington is hoping for action from Pyongyang on scrapping its weapons programs.
President Donald Trump is planning a second summit next month with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, possibly in Vietnam, to agree on concrete steps for denuclearizing the Korean peninsula.
More at: https://www.yahoo.com/news/us-lifts-un-freeze-north-korea-aid-180858868.html
But in a shift, the US has over the past weeks allowed eight requests to get the green light from the committee for such items as solar pumps, plumbing parts, milk cans, tractor tires and children's trampolines.
The approvals could significantly ramp up humanitarian aid to North Korea, where the UN estimates that 10.5 million people, or 41 percent of the population, are undernourished, diplomats and aid groups said.
North Korea's food crisis combined with a high incidence of tuberculosis has alarmed relief groups at a time when Washington is hoping for action from Pyongyang on scrapping its weapons programs.
President Donald Trump is planning a second summit next month with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, possibly in Vietnam, to agree on concrete steps for denuclearizing the Korean peninsula.
More at: https://www.yahoo.com/news/us-lifts-un-freeze-north-korea-aid-180858868.html
