First resident Danish NGO in DPRK opens an office in Pyongyang « NKhumanitarian

First resident Danish NGO in DPRK opens an office in Pyongyang « NKhumanitarian

First resident Danish NGO in DPRK opens an office in Pyongyang



MISSION EAST GENERAL SECRETARY KIM HARTZNER

In Summer 2019, Mission East opened a country office in Pyongyang making it the first resident Danish NGO in the DPRK. Although Mission East has been operating in DPRK since 2011, it says the new office means that Mission East can be more engaged in ongoing projects and react faster to the needs of the populations we support with future initiatives.

The original focus of its work was on food distributions. Mission East has, at various points since 2011, provided food assistance to tens of thousands of young North Korean children through kindergartens, nurseries, orphanages and pediatric hospitals, filling in essential nutrients to balance their diet at this critical stage of physical and psychological growth. Three orphanages in the country’s southern Hwanghae province received regular support for several years, including protein supplements, clothing, stimulating toys and stationery.

On November 6, 2019 the UN Security Council 1718 Sanctions Committee granted a sanctions exemption for the purposes of “[p]rocurement and import of agricultural machinery into the DPRK required for a Mission East project aimed at improving food security for vulnerable populations suffering from acute food shortage in rural DPRK, with the overarching objective to improve the food security of the cooperative farm Chimgyo Ri in North Hwanghae Province. The exemption will allow the import to the DPRK of large agricultural machinery which is normally prohibited by sanctions.”

The sanctions exemption will last for 6 months until May 6, 2020 (see exemption request and approval letter + annex as a PDF file).

The annex to the exemption request lists the main items to be imported over the next six months as:
three rice threshers,
two rice processors/millers,
four maize shellers, and
three maize mills.

The annex also includes an assortment of steel bars, PVC piping, and other construction materials to be used to build potato storages plus greenhouses/sprouting rooms on four farms.

In its September 2019 press release announcing the opening of its new office in the DPRK, the Mission East Country Director, Sakari Koivula, said that “We have now taken an important step towards increasing the assistance to the North Korean population, which is characterized by long-term malnutrition.”

“Mission East’s food assistance and assistance to sustainable and climate-adapted agriculture are absolutely crucial. Not only do we provide emergency assistance as needed, but we also strengthen local village communities so that they can feed themselves.”

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