Human Security and the Humanitarian Situation in North Korea

Thursday 15 October 2020 / 14:00 - 15:30 /

Webinar . Zoom, Webinar.

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The Covid-19 pandemic has had devastating effects around the world, and most nations are still dealing with the immediate effects of the coronavirus as they are waiting for vaccines to be developed. North Korea is one of the few countries that has not reported a single case of Covid-19, however, analysts believe that the country has also been hit by the pandemic.

With the current sanctions imposed by both the U.S. and the United Nations Security Council, coupled with food insecurity, draughts, as well as floods and typhoons, the current humanitarian situation in North Korea is dire. Humanitarian aid and funding have decreased due to an increase in sanctions and the general impoverishment has risen due to loss of trade. Moreover, the situation has been aggravated by the strategy of economic autarchy and self-imposed Covid-19 prevention policies which ultimately brought Pyongyang to reject humanitarian assistance from the outside.  

ISDP’s Korea Center is hosting a roundtable discussion intended to shed light on the current humanitarian situation and the impact of sanctions and humanitarian aid in the DPRK.  The speakers will tackle questions such as: What is the role of the international community in providing humanitarian aid to North Korea? And how can humanitarian and development aid be expedited and better coordinated?

We are honored to have a distinguished panel join us in this webinar for a discussion on the topic of “Human Security and the Humanitarian Situation in North Korea”Dr. Kee B. Park is the Director of Korea Health Policy Project at Harvard Medical School, Åsa Sandberg is the Head of Desk DPRK for the Swedish Red Cross, Dr. Bernhard Seliger is a Representative of the Hanns Seidel Foundation Korea. The Head of the Korea Center, Dr. Sangsoo Lee, will also join as a speaker, and the event will be moderated by Dr. Lars Vargö, Head of ISDP’s Japan Center.

The Center would like to acknowledge that this event was generously supported by the Korea Foundation.