The United Nations has allocated $8 million in humanitarian aid to North Korea, which has been designated one of the nine countries in the world that need emergency funding to cope with humanitarian crises, a news media report said Thursday.

According to the Washington-based Radio Free Asia, the U.N.'s Central Emergency Response Fund provided the fund to North Korea.

Quoting a report on the CERF's program for the first half of the year, the RFA said the U.N. organization has set aside a total of $100 million this year for humanitarian relief aid that will be given to countries like North Korea, Mali, Burundi and Libya.

The CERF began offering assistance in 2006 to nations in drastic need of humanitarian support but not getting their needs met by the international community.

North Korea is the only country in Asia to receive the emergency relief fund from the United Nations.

According to the RFA report, the emergency U.N. funds will be used for a nutritional assistance project for some 1.8 million North Korean children and pregnant women who are afflicted with malnutrition.

North Korea was provided $15 million in 2011, $12 million in 2012, $15 million in 2013, $6 million in 2014 and $8 million in 2015.

The U.N. organizations currently providing assistance to North Korea include the World Food Program, the Food and Agriculture Program (FAO), the World Health Organization and the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund. (Yonhap)