The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Friday appealed for more than 10 million U.S. dollars in aid to address health, water and sanitation, and education needs for children and women in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

The DPRK has "achieved remarkable progress in human development in terms of key social indicators -- access to health, water and sanitation, educational achievements, mortality rates," the New York-based agency said in its latest donor update.

"But there is little hope of achieving the goals in the area of reduction of child mortality and improving maternal health, without major investments in the social sector," it added.

Over the last decade, the DPRK has made considerable progress in catering to the immediate needs of the population as illustrated by the results of nutrition surveys conducted in 1998, 2002 and 2004, UNICEF said. But malnutrition stands at 37 percent and underweight children at 23 percent.

With the DPRK government's decision to discontinue humanitarian aid programs in late 2005, large-scale aid has been interrupted and this may compromise progress already made, the agency noted.

Just Thursday, the UN World Food Program (WFP) announced that it would resume aid to the DPRK after reaching an accord in months of negotiations on new working arrangements, including some on- site monitoring, following the interruption. The agreement covers a 102-million-dollar two-year deal to support 1.9 million people, mostly women and children.

Source: Xinhua