Signs of hope

By John Burton

Humanitarian aid flowing to North Korea provides a useful barometer in determining the state of Pyongyang's relations with the rest of the world ― particularly the U.S. Current trends paint a mainly positive picture.

The U.N. Security Council sanctions committee on North Korea, the so-called 1718 Sanctions Committee, is continuing to waive sanctions for humanitarian aid groups.

One notable example was permission given to the U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF) to deliver nine Italian IVECO ambulances to North Korea in September. The ambulances are needed to transport children and their mothers in rural communities to provincial hospitals in emergencies.

Over the past month, the U.N. has also granted permission for the World Health Organization and the Paris-based aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres to ship medical equipment into North Korea for public health projects. Ignis Community, a U.S.-based Christian NGO, was also allowed to deliver materials for a new Spine and Rehabilitation Center in Pyongyang, which treats children with disabilities.

These actions may address some of the recent complaints by North Korea about "the politicization of U.N. assistance by hostile forces." Last month, Pyongyang threatened to cut the number of U.N. aid staff in North Korea by the end of the year in protest.

Although the U.N. sanctions regime is supposed to exempt humanitarian aid efforts, some provisions have hampered the delivery of aid. For example, the U.N. Security Council's Resolution 2397, which was passed in December 2017 after North Korea conducted nuclear and missile tests, banned the export of metals, machinery, vehicles and electrical equipment to North Korea. The affected materials were so loosely defined that they initially prevented humanitarian organizations from delivering supplies, ranging from syringes and other medical devices to agricultural equipment, that they had previously been able to ship freely.

Instead, aid groups were forced to go through a complicated and time-consuming process to seek U.N. sanctions exemptions. Moreover, the U.S. last year was blocking many U.N. waiver applications. It was only in January that the U.S., as part of U.S. President Donald Trump's engagement policy with North Korea, reversed course and allowed the 1718 Sanctions Committee to grant more aid exemptions.

The changed American attitude may have also been behind another important development last month when the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria reportedly decided to resume funding for TB and malaria programs in North Korea.

In February 2018, the Geneva-based fund announced it was ending funding because it claimed that it could not achieve sufficient oversight of how the money was being spent. But many in international aid community believed that the Global Fund had buckled under pressure from the U.S., one of its largest donors, as part of Washington's tougher sanctions program.

The funding cutoff threatened to deprive North Korea of its stockpile of TB drugs by the middle of next year at a time when TB cases are rising. But the Global Fund's board recently approved a $41.7 million grant for TB and malaria programs there.

The funding amount is significant. UNICEF earlier said that it had received only a third of the $19.5 million in donations it needed this year to carry out its activities in North Korea, which includes treating childhood TB. UNICEF's operations in North Korea have been a principal recipient of Global Fund grants.

News of the new Global Fund grants came as the U.N. revealed that only about a fifth of the funding required for supporting U.N. humanitarian activities in North Korea had been donated this year. Of the $120 million requested, only $20 million had been donated, about the same amount as last year. Most of the committed funds have gone to nutrition programs as 40 percent of North Korea's population faces risks of going hungry this year. The Global Fund donation will help meet the U.N. funding shortfall, while making sure that U.N. health programs are not neglected.

Total donations for both U.N. and NGO programs in North Korea have fallen from $118 million in 2012 to $33 million in 2018, according to the National Committee on North Korea in Washington, D.C.

The improvement in aid delivery and funding this year has depended on the goodwill of the U.S., which reflects Trump's engagement policy with North Korea.

But with Trump now facing possible impeachment, that situation could change. The U.S. president might be distracted by the impeachment proceedings and fail to continue his outreach to Pyongyang. If he is ousted from power, although that appears to be unlikely for the moment, it is almost certain that Washington will revert to a more hardline policy on North Korea. There is already talk that new sanctions actions are being readied by the U.S. if talks between Washington and Pyongyang break down.

John Burton (johnburtonft@yahoo.com), a former Korea correspondent for the Financial Times, is now a Washington, D.C.-based journalist and consultant.