Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono said on Thursday that he was against giving North Korea humanitarian aid to help relieve the country's acute food shortage crisis because he believed Pyongyang should divert the necessary resources from its nuclear arms program
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 09th May, 2019) Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono said on Thursday that he was against giving North Korea humanitarian aid to help relieve the country's acute food shortage crisis because he believed Pyongyang should divert the necessary resources from its nuclear arms program.Earlier in February, North Korea's government asked international humanitarian organizations to provide aid amid food shortages in the country.
"It is premature to provide aid from outside, given the country is in a situation where funds that should be used for the welfare of its people could instead go toward the development of nuclear weapons and missiles," Kono told the upper house of the Japanese Diet, as cited by the Kyodo news agency.
On Tuesday, South Korean President Moon Jae-in and US President Donald Trump discussed giving Pyongyang aid as a way to keep North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Un, engaged in denuclearization negotiations. According to Moon's office, Trump supported Moon's initiative to send its northern neighbor aid.
Last week, the United Nations published a report which said that more than 10 million people in North Korea faced severe food shortages due to low crop production and tightened food rationing in the country.
