Russia sends 447 goats to North Korea in a sign of deepening ties

Russia's agriculture safety watchdog has approved the shipment of 447 goats to North Korea after reviewing related veterinary and sanitary conditions, according to its website, amid deepening cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow.

Russia's agriculture safety watchdog has approved the shipment of 447 goats to North Korea after reviewing related veterinary and sanitary conditions, according to its website, amid deepening cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow.

After veterinary inspection, 432 female and 15 male goats were sent to a North Korean trading company in the first batch of exports of live animals to the North, according to a statement posted on the website of Russia's Rosselkhoznadzor on Friday.

The shipment was intended to be delivered from Russia's Leningrad region to North Korea's border city of Rason, it said.

The move came as North Korea and Russia have been bolstering the scope of their cooperation following last year's summit between the North's leader Kim Jong-un and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The shipment of goats appears to be aimed at providing dairy products to North Korean children amid its chronic food shortages.

North Korea's state media reported on Aug. 9 that goat farms with a large capacity have been built in parts of the western port city of Nampho.

"As a result, foundation has been consolidated to smoothly provide dairy products for the children in the municipality," the Korean Central News Agency said, adding that the municipality is spurring efforts to increase the number of goats of good breed in a bid to boost the output of dairy products.

At a plenary party meeting in June 2021, Kim called for setting a party policy to supply all children across the country with dairy products and other nutritious food at the expense of state funds.

Around one in six North Korean children under age 5 were suffering from stunted growth in 2022 due to malnutrition, according to a report jointly released by the U.N. Children's Fund, the World Health Organization and the World Bank Group.

The child stunting rate in the impoverished state was measured at 16.8 percent, or 285,000 children in the age group, the report said. But the figure marked a decline from 2012, when 411,300 North Korean children were estimated to have suffered from stunted growth.

Yonhap