North Korea is facing a severe food shortage, one that will become even more severe as the spring austerity season progresses. The country may even see the greatest number of starvation deaths since its “The Arduous March”, in the mid 1990s.
International organizations and the Korea Rural Economic Institute estimate that North Korea’s poor harvest last year left it with a grain shortage exceeding one million tons this year. This amounts to a full quarter of the country’s total grain demand. UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs B. Lynn Pascoe, who recently visited North Korea as a special envoy for UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, said that over one in three North Koreans would be in need of food aid in the near future. He also said that the importation and distribution of food in the country is not working effectively because of the side effects of the currency reforms implemented late last year. International assistance has also been almost completely cut off. Even the UN World Food Programme, which has led efforts to supply food aid to North Korea, has said that it may have to cut off its aid completely as of July if new donors do not appear.
The causes of North Korea’s food crisis are structural. In addition to having outdated farming equipment, mountainous and cold terrain, and inadequate equipment repair facilities, it has inefficient management as well, resulting in low agricultural yields and vulnerability to climate change. Moreover, last year’s nuclear test and long-range missile launch had a major impact on international aid. However, North Koreans will only suffer more if we simply wait for all of these causes to be resolved. It is at times like this that we must offer assistance unconditionally. That is the proper function of humanitarian aid.
The reluctant attitude of the current South Korean government has played a large part in the precipitous drop in international assistance. We cannot expect other nations to lead the way when South Korea, whose people share their blood and ancestry with North Koreans, does not step forward first. Still, the members of the Lee Myung-bak administration continue to insist on linking rice and fertilizer aid with advancements on resolving the North Korea nuclear issue. Even the ten thousand tons of corn that North Korea announced it would accept in January has not yet been shipped. The Lee administration calls this “adding substance to humanitarian aid,” but they are merely trying to deliberately put the North Korean people through more acute suffering in order to increase pressure on the country’s regime. It is also questionable whether such a policy will contribute anything to resolving the nuclear issue.
North Korea has recently been greatly increasing its economic cooperation with China and Russia. This all-out effort at “northern cooperation” includes offering long-term usage rights on Rason Harbor, resuming the Duman (Tumen) River development plan, building the New Amnok (Yalu) River Bridge and developing an estuary island in the Amnok River with Chinese capital, and establishing the Taepung International Investment Group with an eye to attracting foreign capital. All the while, inter-Korean economic cooperation withers away, and inter-Korean dialogue goes nowhere. Now it is time to change this situation of conflict between the two Koreas. The start to that lies in providing rice aid to North Korea.
Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]
