The United Nations has decided to provide North Korea with $6 million in emergency aid by the end of this year, a report said Thursday, in a bid to relieve fund shortages at U.N. agencies operating in the isolated country.

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs told the Washington-based Voice of America that U.N. bodies operating in the North will receive this aid through a pool of reserve funding known as the Central Emergency Response Fund.

The CERF was established in 2006 to provide quick assistance to countries in severe humanitarian crises. Funded by donations from governments, the private sector, foundations and individuals, it already allocated $7 million to North Korea this January in an attempt to boost humanitarian efforts in neglected countries.

Under the new plan, the six U.N. agencies operating in North Korea will negotiate with the resident coordinator of the U.N. Development Program in Pyongyang to come up with a detailed list of expenditures, the report said. (Yonhap News)