EU to provide $14.5M for emergency food aid to North Korea

"Responding to the growing threat of a humanitarian crisis in North Korea, the European Union announced on Monday that it will provide about $14.5 million in emergency aid to feed more than some 650,000 North Koreans," the New York Times reports (Castle/McDonald, 7/4).

According to the Guardian, the aid "will be used to buy food, through the World Food Programme and Save the Children, which will be directed to 650,000 children in hospitals and care homes, breastfeeding women, hospital patients and the elderly" (Kennedy, 7/4).

"International sanctions, a tough conservative leader in the South, and a wary U.S. administration have meant a substantial decline in food aid from traditional donors to the secretive state," Reuters writes (Deighton, 7/4).

On Tuesday at a press briefing, State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland said the U.S. has "noted the EU's move. We have talked to the EU about its move. And we understand their decision. We have not made our own decision," Yonhap News Agency reports (Lee, 7/5).