N. Korea’s food shortage deteriorating into ‘humanitarian emergency’: WFP official

Posted on : 2008-10-23 12:59 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
80% of the urban population getting food support from acquaintances, hunting-gathering has increased to 70%
 2008
2008

The food situation in North Korea has gone from the “chronic food shortage” stage, past the stage of “severe food and livelihood crisis,” and is deteriorating into a “humanitarian emergency,” said Jean-Pierre de Margerie, director of the World Food Program’s Pyongyang office.

De Margerie provided this analysis while explaining the routes of food procurement for North Korean citizens in a presentation text distributed prior to the opening of an international academic conference with the theme of “Peace on the Korean Peninsula and a Future of Unification.“ The conference is being held October 22 and 23 at the Korea Press Center in Seoul, with the joint sponsorship of the Korean Council for Reconciliation and Cooperation and the Korea NGO Council for Cooperation with North Korea.

As a basis for his analysis, de Margerie pointed to the fact that the percentage of the population obtaining food through methods besides agriculture, such as hunting or gathering, went from an average of 50 percent between 2003 and 2005 to 70 percent this year, in the case of public distribution recipients. In addition, the percentage of city residents receiving food support from acquaintances rose from just above 60 percent between 2003 and 2005 to 80 percent this year, while the percentage of people eating three meals a day was revealed to be a mere 2.5 out of 10 among those depending on public distribution. The percentage of citizens with limited variety in their diets, consuming only foods from two or three food groups, was 42 percent for two food groups and 39 percent for three food groups.

De Margerie said that because of shortages in fertilizer and fuel, the size of the harvest in 2008 and 2009 was uncertain and that no large-scale food importation could be expected. He also predicted that the food shortage in North Korea will continue in the next year.

In connection with the food issue, North Korea’s Rodong Sinmun, the newspaper of the Workers’ Party of Korea, recognized the acuteness of the situation in an article printed October 22 referring to “rice, food, that thing precious to us like a lifeline.” The article said, “We are united in one mind and have a superior socialist system. What would we have to fear now if we had too much to eat?” The article emphasized reliance on unassisted resolution of the problem, saying, “In the face of today’s severe food crisis, the only things we have to believe in are our strength and effort.”

Unification Minister Kim Ha-joong, in a keynote address at the academic conference on October 22, said that preparations have been made to assist in a resolution to the food shortage of the North Koreans from a humane standpoint, but added that North Korea must immediately cease its criticism of South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, as such criticism of the South Korean president and government was not the position of a partner in cooperation.

Also that day, National Unification Advisory Council Senior Vice President Lee Ki-taek said in an opening address at a regional meeting that took place outside of the NUAC that any exchange between North and South Korea is meaningless as long as North Korea possesses nuclear capabilities, and claimed that the most mistaken of the previous administration’s policies toward the North had been its decision to make the North Korean nuclear issue and inter-Korean exchange separate matters.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]

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