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UN women's anti-discrimination panel considers trafficking risk in DPR of Korea

UN women's anti-discrimination panel considers trafficking risk in DPR of Korea

The committee reviewing reports from United Nations Member States on progress towards equality for women has asked delegates from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) whether, with the shortfall in recent agricultural production, women were risking being trafficked as they sought food for their families.

The 23-member Committee on Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), monitoring the anti-discrimination Convention popularly known as an "international bill of rights for women," noted reports that desperate women were crossing the border into China in search of food and thereby putting themselves in danger of falling prey to traffickers.

The North Korean delegation acknowledged that food production last year was 900,000 tons short of domestic demand.

The leader of the delegation, Ho O Bom, Director of the Legal Affairs Department at the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, said the Government distributed food to supply centres all over the country and those doing manual labour received more rice than those doing light work. Women got rice according to their work or age, he said.

Food was short at a time when the country was undergoing economic difficulties due to natural disasters and because of the budgetary allocation for the military to keep the country prepared for future conflicts, he said.