The president of the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) is to visit both Koreas next month to call for increased international aid for North Korean children.

According to a report released by the North Korean branch of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Human Rights Affairs Thursday, UNICEF president Carol Bellamy is scheduled to visit Pyongyang in mid-March, the organization's first such occasion since 1997.

Bellamy is to subsequently visit Seoul to brief officials on her visit to Pyongyang.