A UN Security Council(UNSC) panel has granted a sanctions exemption to UNICEF to send humanitarian aid to North Korea.

According to a letter recently revealed by the UNSC’s North Korea sanctions committee, UNICEF requested a sanctions exemption on September 16 so that health care supplies for pregnant women, newborns and children as well as materials for water, sanitation and hygiene could be sent to the North.

A week later, the UN panel approved the request for a year. 

The approval has paved the way for UNICEF’s provision of materials worth one-point-68 million dollars, including medical equipment, water hygiene and vaccine cold chain equipment, forklifts and trucks. 

Most of the medical equipment included pregnancy and childbirth-related equipment, such as fetal heart rate monitors and cesarean section surgical instruments, as well as equipment for infection prevention.  

UNICEF earlier said that 800-thousand children and 120-thousand pregnant women will be vaccinated in a nationwide campaign launched on September 2 by North Korea with UNICEF support, adding the campaign will vaccinate children and pregnant women who have missed out life-saving vaccines since the COVID-19 pandemic.