{"id":304233,"date":"2017-04-18T11:28:31","date_gmt":"2017-04-18T10:28:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/uk-sent-north-korea-4mn-in-taxpayer-funded-aid\/"},"modified":"2017-04-18T11:28:31","modified_gmt":"2017-04-18T10:28:31","slug":"uk-sent-north-korea-4mn-in-taxpayer-funded-aid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/uk-sent-north-korea-4mn-in-taxpayer-funded-aid\/","title":{"rendered":"UK sent North Korea \u00a34mn in taxpayer-funded aid"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div>\n<p><time class=\"date date_article-header\">Published time: 18 Apr, 2017 09:58<\/time><\/p>\n<p>        North Korea has received more than \u00a34 million (US$5 million) British taxpayer funds over six years despite the communist regime\u2019s threat to spark a nuclear war, it has emerged.<\/p>\n<div class=\"article__text text  js-mediator-article\">\n<p>Tensions with the country, ruled by Kim Jong-un, have escalated in the last few days after North Korea said it would conduct weekly missile tests and warned that an <em>\u201call-out war\u201d<\/em> would result from and US military action against it.<\/p>\n<div class=\"arcticle__read-more read-more\">\n<p>Read more<\/p>\n<p>    <a class=\"read-more__link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.rt.com\/uk\/384464-foreign-aid-budget-taxpayers\/\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n                    <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"read-more__cover\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.rt.com\/files\/2017.04\/thumbnail\/58edf194c46188452e8b4615.jpg\" alt=\"\u00a9\u00a0gov.uk\"\/><br \/>\n    <\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p>Official figures show the UK sent \u00a3750,000-worth of aid to the pariah state in 2015 alone \u2013 a 167 percent increase on the previous year, according to the Daily Mail.<\/p>\n<p>The UK sent \u00a332,000 in aid to North Korea in 2009, but spending increased under the coalition government, peaking at just over \u00a31 million in 2013.<\/p>\n<p>The cash, which forms part of the UK\u2019s commitment to spend 0.7 percent of its GDP on foreign aid, has reportedly been spent on providing English lessons for regime officials, workshops for entrepreneurs and physiotherapy equipment.<\/p>\n<p>The prospect of taxpayers\u2019 money being sent to a country that has threatened war with the West is prompting fury, with some calling for a cease of all aid to the hermit state until North Korea stops threatening the international community.<\/p>\n<p>Sir Gerald Howarth, a former Tory defense minister, called the aid handouts <em>\u201cabsurd.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cThere are some very poor people there because of the regime\u2019s actions, but the country is a communist basket case,\u201d<\/em> he told the Daily Mail.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cThey are trying to build a nuclear missile to hit the United States, they are destabilizing the entire region. Why on Earth are we giving them aid?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"900\" height=\"506\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/yuUe6Yt8EMA\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The Foreign Office, responsible for most of the spending, told the newspaper it has no plans to ax the aid program. It argued that aid is not given directly to the North Korean regime and that the fund could improve relations.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cThe projects we carry out in North Korea are part of our policy of critical engagement, and are used to promote British values and demonstrate to the North Korean people that engaging with the UK and the outside world is an opportunity rather than a threat.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cWe conduct a range of small-scale project work, many of which help to improve the lives of the most vulnerable members of society.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Via <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/uk\/385136-north-korea-aid-nuclear\/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=RSS\">RT<\/a>. This piece was reprinted by <a href=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\">RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Published time: 18 Apr, 2017 09:58 North Korea has received more than \u00a34 million (US$5 million) British taxpayer funds over six years despite the communist regime\u2019s threat to spark a nuclear war, it has emerged. Tensions with the country, ruled by Kim Jong-un, have escalated in the last few days after North Korea said it [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":304234,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-304233","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=304233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/304234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=304233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=304233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=304233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}