PYONGYANG, July 13 (Xinhua) -- UN Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Mark Lowcock wrapped up a four-day visit to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Thursday, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.
Lowcock met with Kim Yong Nam, president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly of the DPRK, during the visit and held talks with DPRK officials in charge of health and sanitation affairs.
Lowcock said at a press briefing Wednesday that the DPRK has made a lot of progress in improving on the humanitarian front since 2012, although challenges remain regarding child malnutrition as well as the lack of safe water and medical supplies.
He said the DPRK has made a lot of progress, illustrated by the fact that the number of stunted children has dropped from 28 percent to 20 percent since 2012.
Lowcock said the priority plan of UN assistance to the DPRK includes a 111-million-U.S. dollar humanitarian assistance package to be provided to the country through donations by UN member countries.
"This year, as set out in the Needs and Priorities Plan that we published a few months ago and was discussed with all the relevant parties, the UN is trying to raise 111 million U.S. dollars to meet humanitarian needs in the areas I have talked about - health, water and sanitation, and food security - for about 6 million people," said Lowcock.
"Just before I started my visit, the situation was that we had raised about 10 percent of the money as a result of generous donations from the government of Sweden, Switzerland and Canada, but that leaves us with a very large funding shortfall," said the senior UN official.
Lowcock toured a hospital, a kindergarten and some farming areas in the DPRK's South Hwanghae Province to review the humanitarian situations there.
This was the first time for a UN undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator to visit the DPRK in seven years.
