Voice of America reports that a U.S. senator has urged the Trump administration to ease restrictions on humanitarian aid to North Korea. 

According to the report on Thursday, Democrat Ed Markey of Massachusetts sent letters to President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Wednesday and asked for clarity regarding the administration's policy on the provision of humanitarian aid to North Korea.

The senator said that it's important to maintain direct pressure on the Kim Jong-un regime to deter its illegal nuclear weapons program and human rights violations.

But he also pointed out that by restricting the activities of aid activists, including their travels to the North, the U.S. was blocking assistance toward resolving the dire humanitarian situation in North Korea.

Markey also cited UN data, estimating some 60-thousand North Korean children are at risk of dying of starvation.

He also warned in the letter that if multiple drug resistant tuberculosis fails to be treated in the North, it will also have fatal effects on its neighbors.