Red Cross Urges Aid to North Koreans

North Korea should continue to receive humanitarian aid from around the world, despite its announcement that it tested a nuclear weapon, according to Jaap Timmer, head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies’ delegation in Pyongyang, Reuters reports. “Humanitarian aid should not be influenced by the political situation,” Mr. Timmer said.

In most years, North Korea falls short of about one million tons of the food it needs to feed its people and relies on food assistance from other countries.

However, the North Korean government has been known to bristle over the aid it receives, occasionally insisting, even in the face of famine, that its people do not need humanitarian aid.