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S. Korea donates $10 million toward Syria’s humanitarian crisis

April 1, 2015
FILE - This picture taken on Thursday, April. 24, 2014 and provided by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), U.N relief workers with blue helmets and vests stand next of residents of the besieged Palestinian camp of Yarmouk, right, who stand in line to receive aid food distributed by UNRWA, on the southern edge of the Syrian capital Damascus, Syria. On wednesday, April. 1, 2015 Islamic State militants infiltrated the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk in the Syrian capital marking the deepest foray yet by the extremist group into Damascus, seat of President Bashar Assad’s power, Syrian opposition activists and Palestinian officials said. (AP Photo/UNRWA, File )

FILE – This picture taken on Thursday, April. 24, 2014 and provided by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), U.N relief workers with blue helmets and vests stand next of residents of the besieged Palestinian camp of Yarmouk, right, who stand in line to receive aid food distributed by UNRWA, on the southern edge of the Syrian capital Damascus, Syria. On wednesday, April. 1, 2015 Islamic State militants infiltrated the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk in the Syrian capital marking the deepest foray yet by the extremist group into Damascus, seat of President Bashar Assad’s power, Syrian opposition activists and Palestinian officials said. (AP Photo/UNRWA, File )

SEOUL, April 1 (Yonhap) — South Korea has decided to donate US$10 million to help millions of Syrians displaced by a prolonged civil war, Seoul’s foreign ministry said Tuesday.

Seoul’s pledge came at a donors’ conference held on Monday in Kuwait aimed at supporting the international community’s efforts to resolve the humanitarian crisis in Syria.

The move will raise the total amount of assistance from Seoul to Syria to $23.45 million, the ministry said. In 2012, South Korea first provided assistance to Syrians worth $2 million.

More than 12 million Syrians need humanitarian assistance inside the war-torn country, up from 1 million people at the beginning of the conflict in 2011, according to the United Nations.

At the conference, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon requested that the world provide an unprecedented amount of $8.4 billion this year to tackle the growing number of Syrian refugees, according to the foreign ministry.

“As a new aid donor, South Korea has been actively engaged in coping with humanitarian crises and it will make efforts to expand such assistance in a way to commensurate with the country’s global status,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.

Participating countries at the donor conference have pledged to provide an accumulative $3.8 billion, including $570 million from the United States.

South Korea is the first country in the world that has transformed into an aid donor from a recipient nation.

8 Comments

  1. Daniel S

    April 1, 2015 at 11:02 AM

    Germany and Japan have been huge aid receivers and now givers in the past.

    Reply

  2. 어휴 등신

    April 1, 2015 at 1:01 PM

    Are you serious with the last sentence? How about every single Marshall Plan recipient ever? What next? Are you going to say that Korea is the first poor country in the world to become rich? This is why Korean journalism is a joke.

    Reply

  3. ugh /r/worldnews neckbeards

    April 1, 2015 at 1:18 PM

    South Korea was the former aid recipient to become a member of OECD’s Development Assistance Committee. That’s what the last sentence refers to. American neckbeards are a joke.

    Reply

    • 어휴 등신

      April 1, 2015 at 1:44 PM

      Except that is clearly not what the last sentence says. If you were at all familiar with the delusional auto fellatio that Koreans like to engage in, you would understand. Among the many ridiculous things that Koreans spout on a regular basis:

      1. The Korean race is 100% pure.

      2. Japanese “monkeys” were civilized by Korean emissaries who taught them language and the arts.

      3. Hangul is the most advanced and scientific language in the world.

      I can go on and on about shit that Koreans think they are number #1 in, should this be of interest to you.

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  7. Jim terwiliger

    April 1, 2015 at 5:54 PM

    I am an American who loves South Korea and would like to make them a state (if they would even want that)

    <3 from a Jaedong fan

    Reply