South Korea to Scale up Humanitarian Assistance over COVID-19

The South Korean government announced on June 5 that it will additionally provide about US$21 million in humanitarian assistance for 65 countries in addition to its assistance of about US$20 million so far.

The assistance will be offered particularly to 34 countries with vulnerable health systems in Africa and the Middle East, including Yemen, Sudan and Mozambique, as well as 10 in Europe and Central Asia, 12 in the Americas, and 9 in Asia and the Pacific, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

To date, the Korean government has provided mainly diagnostic kits as in-kind contributions for COVID-19 humanitarian assistance: This time, its provision will include facial masks as well. Also, the Korean government will cooperate with international and regional organizations for its implementation of humanitarian assistance including the delivery of material aid.

As of June 3, about 110 countries have requested South Korea to extend humanitarian assistance over COVID-19, and the government has so far implemented bilateral assistance of about US$20 million for 42 countries in a way that it does not affect disease prevention and control efforts at home and in overall consideration of the extents of the scale of the COVID-19 outbreak and health vulnerability of those countries in need.

The government will continue to provide humanitarian assistance based on the developments regarding the COVID-19 pandemic as well as assessments of the extent of needs of countries, the ministry said in a press release.