UN to approve sanction exemptions on N. Korea aid projects: Sources

SEOUL – The UN Security Council sanctions committee on North Korea is to give exemptions for humanitarian aid projects in the impoverished country, diplomatic sources in Seoul told AFP on Feb 6.

The nuclear-armed country is under multiple sets of sanctions over its weapons programmes and has long struggled with its moribund state-managed economy and chronic food shortages.

“The 17 humanitarian assistance projects... are all being implemented by major international organisations such as UNICEF, or by NGOs from South Korea and the United States,” the sources said.

Analysts say the move would allow such groups to provide humanitarian aid, such as nutritional supplements, medical equipment and water purification systems, to North Korea.

A foreign ministry official said Seoul has made “various efforts” to ensure that humanitarian aid reaches the North, regardless of politics.

“We hope that North Korea will respond positively to our government’s efforts for peaceful coexistence on the Korean Peninsula,” the official said.

The sources spoke hours after a senior South Korean official said

“new progress” on North Korea

could come within days.

That senior official’s comments came while discussing US President Donald Trump’s scheduled trip to China in April.

Seoul and Washington this week reaffirmed their commitment to North Korea’s “complete denuclearisation” and

cooperation on Seoul’s nuclear-powered submarine plan

, a move that has previously drawn an angry response from Pyongyang.

North Korea is set to hold a landmark congress of its ruling party soon, its first in five years.

Leader Kim Jong Un ordered the “expansion” and modernisation of the North’s missile production ahead of that conclave. AFP