FILE PHOTO - Mark Lowcock, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator (OCHA) attends a news conference in Geneva, Switzerland April 26, 2018. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse

GENEVA (Reuters) - The top U.N. aid official, Mark Lowcock, will go to North Korea next week in the first such visit since 2011, the United Nations said on Friday.

During his trip from July 9-12, Lowcock will meet government officials, humanitarian partners and people receiving assistance to better understand the humanitarian situation, the United Nations said.

More than 10 million people, some 40 percent of the population of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) need humanitarian assistance, the world body said in a statement.