South seeks UN sanctions exemption to send $6.75 million in medical equipment to North

The South Korean government sought a United Nations sanctions exemption to provide North Korea with medical equipment worth about $6.75 million and is working to send the shipment as early as next month.

The government requested an exemption from the UN Security Council sanctions committee on North Korea to send medical equipment to Kangdong County Hospital in Pyongyang through the Korea Foundation for International Healthcare (Kofih), according to documents submitted by the Ministry of Unification to People Power Party Rep. Kim Dai-sik, a member of the National Assembly’s Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee, on Wednesday.

Kofih is a public institution under the Ministry of Health and Welfare that provides health care assistance to developing countries, North Korea and overseas South Koreans.

The request submitted to the UN states that the equipment will ship within six months of the sanctions exemption approval.

The UN Security Council sanctions committee approved the exemption for the project on May 22, putting the government’s tentative shipping deadline at Nov. 22.

According to the documents, the government plans to transport the medical equipment by sea.

The planned shipment consists of 1,431 pieces of medical equipment across 166 categories, worth a combined $6.75 million.

It will depart from Incheon Port, travel through Dandong, China, and enter North Korea through Nampo Port. Hyundai Asan, a South Korean inter-Korean economic cooperation company, has been tentatively selected as the carrier.

The government set the total transportation cost, including domestic shipping expenses, at $3,500.

Among them, 41 items — including autoclaves, ambulances, ultralow-temperature freezers, urine analyzers and computed tomography, or CT, devices — are subject to UN restrictions on transfers to North Korea and require separate authorization.

The government is also considering ways to ensure that the equipment is not diverted from its intended purpose of providing medical services, such as sending a six-member joint monitoring team to North Korea, consisting of three Kofih employees and three outside experts.

If North Korean authorities do not allow South Korean inspectors to enter the country, Seoul has proposed conducting on-site inspections using personnel from third countries such as China or Mongolia or carrying out remote inspections via video link.

The South Korean government said that the North has a considerable number of medical facilities but faces severe shortages of medical equipment and pharmaceuticals; the prolonged border closure during the Covid-19 pandemic reportedly exacerbated vulnerabilities in its health care system.

It also pointed to the location of Kangdong County Hospital on the outskirts of Pyongyang, where access to medical services is more limited than in central areas of the city.

The government believes that supplying the hospital with medical equipment could improve its diagnostic and treatment capabilities and expand access to medical care for vulnerable groups, including pregnant women, newborns, older adults and patients with serious or chronic illnesses.

However, the actual scale and timing of aid have yet to be finalized.

In its response to Rep. Kim, the Unification Ministry said that the current plan is tentative. The government will finalize the project’s details only after consulting with North Korea and proceed after completing relevant procedures, including review by the Inter-Korean Exchange and Cooperation Promotion Council.

The government aims to finance the project through the health care cooperation budget under the livelihood cooperation support program of the inter-Korean cooperation fund.

The UN sanctions exemption is valid for nine months from the approval date. If the project is not carried out within that period, the government will review the plan and decide whether to seek an extension of the exemption.

The opposition criticized the timing of the proposed aid.

“At a time when our soldiers have been seriously injured by land mines believed to have been planted by North Korea, we have to ask whether it meets the public’s expectations for the government to have already mapped out in detail the equipment that it will provide to North Korea and even how it will be shipped,” Kim said, referring to the Sept. 21 land mine explosion in the demilitarized zone that left three South Korean soldiers injured.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff announced on Monday that a probe conducted with the UN Command had concluded that North Korean troops deliberately planted the antipersonnel mines that caused the blast.

BY JEONG JAE-HONG [[email protected]]