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Public health workers disinfect a department store in Pyongyang, North Korea. (AP/Yonhap News)

The United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea has urged for an easing of UN sanctions on Pyongyang, warning of a dire food crisis there since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic given the North’s global isolation, Reuters reported Thursday.

The comment came from a report to be presented on Oct. 22 to the UN General Assembly by Tomás Ojea Quintana, who warned about global “creeping apathy” over the difficulties faced by North Korean people amid the crisis.

"Sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council should be reviewed and eased when necessary to both facilitate humanitarian and lifesaving assistance and to enable the promotion of the right to an adequate standard of living of ordinary citizens," Reuters quoted him as saying.

"People’s access to food is a serious concern and the most vulnerable children and elderly are at risk of starvation."

“Essential medicines and medical supplies are in short supply and prices have increased several fold as they stopped coming in from China, and humanitarian organisations have been unable to bring in medicines and other supplies,” Ojea Quintana wrote.

The special rapporteur said that “the current worsening humanitarian situation could turn into a crisis and must be averted.”

Reuters added that “Ojea Quintana called for easing military tension on the divided peninsula and urged the United States and South Korea to ‘send clear signals’ to revive diplomacy aimed at securing the North’s denuclearisation.”

Reuters reported that North Korea neither recognizes the special rapporteur’s mission nor works with him.

Although North Korea has admitted difficulties feeding its population after a string of natural disasters last year, in April it described a UN report on malnutrition suffered by North Korean children as a “sheer lie,” Reuters added.

By Shin Gi-sub, senior staff writer

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