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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

N Korea says sanctions threaten survival of children

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GENEVA/SEOUL: North Korea told a UN rights panel that international sanctions imposed on it over its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes would endanger the survival of North Korean children.


Han Tae Song, Pyongyang’s Ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, was speaking at a hearing of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child late on Wednesday.


The panel of independent experts challenged North Korean officials over allegations of forced child labour, abuse and trafficking in North Korea, Pyongyang’s health and education budget, and Internet access for children.


Han said North Korea, whose population is 26 million, is a “people-centred socialist country... where protection and promotion of the rights and welfare of the child are given top priority... There is room for improvement.”


But Han said that new sanctions imposed by the United States and the UN Security Council over North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile tests were hampering the production of nutritional goods for children and provision of textbooks.


“The persistent and vicious blockade and sanctions against the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) are not only hampering the endeavours for the protection and promotion of the rights of the child but also seriously threatening their right to survival,” he said, calling for sanctions to be lifted.


The UN Security Council has unanimously imposed nine rounds of sanctions on North Korea since 2006, the latest earlier this month capping fuel supplies to the isolated state.


Han said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un — denounced by US President Donald Trump as “Rocket Man” — “personally guides the construction in different parts of the country of schoolchildren’s palaces, children’s hospitals, baby homes, children’s homes, and primary and secondary boarding schools and works with devotion for the well-being of the young generation”.


South Korea approved a plan on Thursday to send $8 million worth of aid to North Korea as China warned the crisis on the divided Korean peninsula was getting more serious by the day and the war of words between Pyongyang and Washington continued.


Human Rights Watch has called on the rights panel to press North Korea’s delegation on cases of child abuse.


— Reuters


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