Masks for needy Officials at the Korean National Red Cross prepare sanitary masks for the needy at its headquarters in Seoul on Feb. 3, 2020, in this photo provided by the organization. (Yonhap)
Why should a regime that has enough money to fund a luxurious lifestyle for Kim Jong-un and the regime elite as well as develop a robust nuclear program be given humanitarian aid? It is pretty clear that the regime is using international organizations to help subsidize their nuclear program and lavish lifestyles by not having to divert resources to support their own people:
Bart Vermeiren, head of the North Korean office of the Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), speaks during an interview with Yonhap News Agency in Seoul. (Yonhap)
Politics should be kept separate from efforts for humanitarian aid, the head of the North Korean office of an international Red Cross organization has said, adding that any link between them could be “dangerous” as it could turn assistance into a “negotiation tool.”
Bart Vermeiren, head of mission of the Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), made the remark in a recent interview in Seoul with Yonhap News Agency, amid growing calls for waiving sanctions for humanitarian projects.
“I think that humanitarian aid should remain depoliticized. It should not actually be linked to politics because it becomes dangerous. Then humanitarian aid becomes a tool, a negotiation tool so that should not be the case,” he said.
Vermeiren was in Seoul on a four-day trip to meet Red Cross colleagues and policymakers to discuss cooperation. This marked his first official trip since he was sent to Pyongyang in July last year. His term as head of the ICRC’s Pyongyang office is to end in December. (…..)
Recently, a group of about 60 North Korea aid organizations in South Korea sent a joint letter urging the U.N. Security Council to exempt humanitarian assistance projects from sanctions on the communist nation. [Yonhap]
This appears to just be another way that the North Korea apologists are trying to get around the sanctions on the Kim regime. I would not be surprised if things like the infrastructure upgrades that the Moon administration has been advocating for in North Korea, will be considered “humanitarian assistance” to get around sanctions.
Here we go again, another year and yet more claims of a food crisis in North Korea. When are people going to learn that the only reason there is a food crisis in North Korea is because of the Kim regime which many governments and organizations continue to enable?:
A heat wave in North Korea has led to rice, maize and other crops withering in the fields, “with potentially catastrophic effects,” the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said on Friday.
The world’s largest disaster relief network warned of a risk of a “full-blown food security crisis” in the isolated country, where a famine in the mid-1990s killed up to 3 million people. It said the worrying situation had been exacerbated by international sanctions imposed due to North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs. [Japan Times]
You can read more at the link, but I wonder if the Moon administration will try and claim that the “food security crisis” is why sanctions should be dropped on North Korea?
