President Moon Jae-in on Saturday said offering humanitarian aid to North Korea should not be linked to political circumstances, drawing a line between the need for aid and the North’s escalating nuclear provocations.

“South Korea is watching over the malnutrition problems of the infants in North Korea,” Moon said in his speech at the G-20 summit in Hamburg, Germany.

“We seek to cooperate with international and civic organizations to provide humanitarian aid with strict and systematic monitoring so that it does not breach the agreed global sanctions imposed against North Korea.”


He explained that some 41 percent of the communist state, and among them 28 percent of the children under five years old, suffer from malnutrition, quoting data from this year’s UNICEF report.

Only a day before Moon’s departure for Germany, North Korea launched yet another missile, claiming that the projectile was its first intercontinental ballistic missile.

His statement goes in line with his more flexible approach to Pyongyang. Moon has reiterated on numerous occasions that his administration will seek dialogue while continuing with the sanctions.

On Thursday, he unveiled a “comprehensive” approach in his address in Berlin that seeks to tackle the issue of denuclearization and promote a peace treaty at the same time.

The South Korean president also stressed the role of World Health Organization as he addressed the global issues related to new infectious diseases and antibiotic resistance. In the global forum, he revealed the plans to donate $100 million to 13 countries by 2020.

“We need to increase our support for the nations that lack in medical treatments. We will support them with $100 million until 2020,” he said.

The new government had previously approved of sending medicines for tuberculosis and malaria, and construction funds for hospital wards by a civic group, though it was rejected by the North in late June.

“South Korea will also take part in the world’s effort to resolve the refugee problem, as a country that has experienced a refugee crisis in the past when the two Koreas were divided after the Korean war.”

In the two-day summit on Friday and Saturday titled, “Shaping an Interconnected World,” the leaders across the world discussed global economic growth, trade and market regulations.

While four state chiefs including Moon, US President Donald Trump, and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sat at a round table to talk about North Korea’s military provocations on the sidelines of the economic forum, they failed to include content related to the sanctions against the reclusive state in the resolution, amid rejections from China’s Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

By Jo He-rim (herim@heraldcorp.com)