South Korea’s Moon Jae-in administration may be turning to private and nonprofit groups to provide humanitarian assistance to North Korea as severe weather, natural disasters and COVID-19 lockdowns batter the DPRK.

The unification and foreign ministries have budgeted tens of thousands of dollars for projects to analyze the work of foreign nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that have provided public health and food aid to North Korea in recent months, according to grant notices posted on their respective websites since mid-July.

The foreign ministry has invited researchers to bid on its research project, explaining that the outsourced research should focus on “foreign