Sanctions may be worsening human rights in NKorea: UN

Three recent rounds of United Nations sanctions on Pyongyang over its missile and nuclear tests may be hurting ordinary North Koreans and worsening the country's already dire human rights situation, an independent expert said today.
UN Special Rapporteur Tomas Quintana told the General Assembly's human rights committee that shipments to North Korea of medicine for cancer patients, and of wheelchairs and other equipment for people with disabilities had been blocked, probably as a result of sanctions.
Humanitarian aid workers working in North Korea are facing bigger hurdles to obtain supplies and carry out financial transactions due to sanctions, he said.

"I am concerned with the possibility that these sanctions might have a negative impact on vital economic sectors, and therefore, a direct consequence on the enjoyment of human rights," said Quintana, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea.
The Security Council has slapped export bans on coal, iron, lead, textiles and seafood, restricted joint ventures and blacklisted a number of North Korean companies in response to Pyongyang's missile and nuclear tests.
The sanctions are aimed at choking off revenue to Pyongyang's military programs, but Quintana said ordinary North Koreans may suffer.

"History shows us that sanctions can have a devastating impact on the civilian population," said the Argentine diplomat.

He called for a full assessment of the sanctions regime to ensure the measures do not "effectively constitute a collective punishment on the ordinary citizens" of North Korea.
In a written report to the committee, Quintana said 41 percent of North Korea's population is undernourished as the country struggles with chronic food shortages exacerbated by floods and droughts.
Nearly a third of children under the age of five suffer from stunting, the growth failure caused by malnutrition, a significant increase from 2014.
Some 18 million people, or 70 per cent of the population, depend on food aid in North Korea.