UN grants 5 sanctions exemptions for Pyongyang humanitarian outreach

This October 2015 photo, taken by a World Food Programme official, shows North Korean children at a nursery. Photo captured from WFP website

The U.N. Security Council has granted sanctions exemptions this week to allow five proposed humanitarian projects in North Korea to move forward, including providing nutritional and medical supplies, according to the U.N. website.

The exemptions pave the way for sanctioned items to be brought into North Korea for a children's nutrition project by French NGO Premiere Urgence Internationale and an elderly care project by another French NGO, Triangle Generation Humanitaire, while the U.N. Population Fund will be able to send emergency reproductive health kits.

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They also allowed the Canadian NGO First Steps Health Society and the international NGO Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders) to import soymilk processing systems and medical items, respectively, into the North.

The approvals raised the total number of humanitarian exemptions related to North Korea currently in effect to 20. The exemptions are valid for six months. Humanitarian activities are not banned under international sanctions, but related materials are subject to sanctions waivers from the U.N. (Yonhap)