UNICEF has added its voice to the appeal for aid to North Korea, where children and women are at risk of suffering severe malnutrition.
In October, U.N. emergency relief chief Valerie Amos and the U.N. special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in North Korea, Marzuki Darusman, urged the international community to step up its assistance to North Korea.
>> Valerie Amos Urges NKorea to Be Open on Humanitarian Needs Data
>> UN Human Rights Expert Appeals for Aid for North Korea
UNICEF said Nov. 1 that it had only received $4.6 million of its 2011 appeal for $20.4 million to cover its emergency response operation in the reclusive Asian country.
The lack of funding, it warned, will curtail UNICEF’s nutrition programs for severely malnourished North Korean children. The result: Those children “will suffer irreversible consequences on their growth and development capacity,” UNICEF added.
UNICEF noted that undernourishment affects a quarter of North Korean women aged 15 to 49.
“This greatly increases their risk of delivering infants with low birth weight who are at higher risk of mortality and diseases, increasing widespread chronic malnutrition with catastrophic long term effects on children’s development,” UNICEF said.
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