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| South and North Korean men's under-15 team members leave the stadium after their match in Chuncheon, Gangwon Province, on Nov. 2 last year. Yonhap |
By Lee Min-hyung
The United Nations granted sanctions exemptions on equipment that a South Korean football delegation plans to take to Pyongyang for next week's inter-Korean World Cup qualifier, the Ministry of Unification said Tuesday.
Under the U.N. Security Council (UNSC) sanctions completed on North Korea, some sports equipment and medical devices are not allowed to be brought into the North. But the U.N. ended procedures for the sanctions waiver last week in consideration that they are necessary for the match scheduled on Oct. 15, according to the ministry.
"The waivers were issued on items related to the sports squad and management of the upcoming match," a ministry official said.
Despite the sanctions waivers, the North is still keeping a low profile in arranging other details, remaining quiet over a series of South Korea's proposals and requests regarding the match.
The details include the South Korean delegation's travel route to Pyongyang. Seoul is considering pushing for a plan to send the delegation via a direct air route between Incheon and Pyongyang. When President Moon Jae-in held his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in the North's capital, last year, the South's presidential plane used the direct route.
One potential scenario includes an air route via Beijing. The ministry is in the final stage of talks with relevant authorities, such as the Asia Football Confederation, to decide details.
The government is also reviewing whether to send a cheer squad to Pyongyang as part of the South's efforts to celebrate the symbolic and rare inter-Korean sporting event.
"It appears to be physically impossible for us to turn the plan into reality considering that the North remains unresponsive over the proposal at a time when the match is only a week away," the official said.
Humanitarian efforts continue despite NK missile tests
The recent sanctions waiver on sports equipment puts a spotlight on UNSC plans to discuss whether the North's latest launch of a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) violated U.N. sanctions.
Despite the North's repeated missile tests, international society is still in a position to continue providing humanitarian aid to impoverished North Korean citizens.
In particular, the World Food Program (WFP) is working with the South Korean government to deliver 50,000 tons of rice, which Pyongyang initially refused to accept. Under the previous initiative, the two sides planned to finish delivering the food aid by the end of last month. But because the North remained unresponsive, no progress has been made.
Park Won-gon, an international relations professor at Handong Global University, expects efforts to provide humanitarian support to the North will continue.
"Even when the North engaged in a series of nuclear tests and launched missiles, non-profit international organizations did not stop offering humanitarian aid to the North, and such a stance will continue," Park said.
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