MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 29th November, 2022) South Korea will allocate $3 million in humanitarian assistance for a World Food Programme (WFP) scheme, the UN's food aid branch, to provide low-income countries with Ukrainian grain, South Korean Spokesperson and Deputy Minister for Public Affairs Soosuk Lim said on Tuesday.
"The Korean government, having decided to join the 'Grain from Ukraine' initiative, will contribute USD 3 million to the initiative through the UN World Food Programme (WFP)," Soosuk told a briefing, as quoted by the South Korean Foreign Ministry.
The statement also said that the initiative involved a humanitarian aid program that would provide part of the Ukrainian grain to countries facing severe food shortages, including Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen, via the WFP.
On Monday, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said that the long-awaited ship chartered by the WFP to transport Russian fertilizers to Malawi was expected to set off in the next 48 hours. The ship was supposed to start sailing on November 21, but later its departure was delayed. The vessel will sail via Mozambique, with Malawi as the final destination.
On July 22, Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the United Nations struck a deal to provide a humanitarian maritime corridor for ships with food and fertilizer exports from Ukrainian Black Sea ports. However, Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly said that most of the ships carrying Ukrainian grain did not make it to the world's poorest countries and ended up in Europe. At the same time, Putin has voiced his concerns that Russian products are not entering the global markets as promised by the agreement.
Since then, the grain deal, originally scheduled to expire on November 19, has been renewed for another 120 days.
