Sanctions can hurt millions

The UN rights chief told the Security Council on Monday that tough sanctions imposed on North Korea are complicating the delivery of desperately needed humanitarian aid and called for an assessment.

An estimated 18 million North Koreans, or 70 percent of the population, suffer from acute food shortages and aid agencies provide "literally a lifeline" for 13 million of them, said UN Human Rights Commissioner Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein.

"But sanctions may be adversely affecting this essential help," he told a special Security Council meeting on human rights in North Korea.

Sanctions that have tightened controls over international bank transfers "have caused a slowdown in UN ground operations, affecting the delivery of food rations, health kits and other humanitarian aid," he said.

The rights chief asked the council to conduct an assessment of the human rights impact of sanctions and urged them to take action to minimize consequences.

Over the past year, the council has adopted three rounds of sanctions aimed at choking off revenue to Pyongyang's military programs after Kim Jong-Un's regime carried out a series of advanced missile launches.

Meanwhile, Japanese F-15 fighters yesterday held drills with US B1-B bombers, F-35 stealth aircraft and F-18 multirole combat jets above the East China Sea, south of the Korean peninsula, Japan's Air Self Defence Force said.

The exercise was the largest in a series aimed at pressuring North Korea following its ballistic missile tests. The latest launch, on Nov 29, featured a new missile type the North said could hit targets in the United States, such as Washington DC.

Two US Air Force B-1B Lancer bombers flew from Andersen Air Force Base on the US Pacific island territory of Guam, joined by six F-35s four F-18s and a tanker aircraft from US bases in Japan.

Curbing North Korea's nuclear ambitions will top South Korean President Moon Jae-in's agenda in Beijing during a visit this week aimed at breaking the ice after a furious row over Seoul's deployment of a US anti-missile system, reported Reuters.

At his third meeting this year with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday in Beijing, Moon is expected to reaffirm South Korea's agreement with China in late October that they would normalise exchanges and move past the dispute over THAAD, which froze trade and business exchanges between the two.

China has been particularly angered at the deployment of US-made Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) anti-missile system in South Korea, saying its powerful radar can see far into China and will do nothing to ease tension with North Korea.