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South Korean Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul (front row

Humanitarian concerns and politics must be kept separate: that’s the position elaborated by David Beasley, executive director of the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP), during a meeting with South Korean Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul at the Central Government Complex in Seoul on May 13. Beasley’s remarks are a painful reminder for the South Korean government.

In September 2017, the South Korean government decided to provide US$8 million in humanitarian aid to North Korea through international organizations. These plans were even reviewed and approved by the government’s Inter-Korean Exchange and Cooperation Promotion Council. But during the year and nine months that have passed since then, the South hasn’t managed to send the North a single biscuit. The US$8 million allocation was scrapped when the time limit passed. That’s due to the US government’s overt hostility to humanitarian aid to North Korea and the South Korean government’s failed strategy.

The US has repeatedly blocked South Korean aid because it regards even humanitarian aid as leverage it can exploit to force North Korea to denuclearize. One of the major obstacles has been the South Korea-US working group. The South Korean government claims that the working group discusses a wide range of issues related to denuclearization and inter-Korean cooperation. But during my time as a reporter, sources have openly said that the US uses the working group as a tool to delay or stymie the implementation of inter-Korean agreements.

One of the best examples of this was the plan by the South Korean government to approve a request by entrepreneurs from tenant companies at the Kaesong Industrial Complex to visit North Korea in order to assess their assets, a plan that was thwarted by opposition from the US, even after it had been reported in the media. The time when the government informed the US of its plans to approve the visit was Oct. 21-23, when Lee Do-hoon, South Korea’s special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs, was in the US to attend a meeting of the working group.

The very decision to discuss humanitarian aid to North Korea in the working group was a serious blunder by the South Korean government. As Beasley said, humanitarian concerns and politics should be kept separate. The UN Security Council’s sanctions resolutions against North Korea are intended to prevent the North from developing nuclear weapons and missiles, not to hold the North Korean populace hostage in the push for denuclearization.

“The US’ consistent position on humanitarian aid is to wait for the right time. While it would be nice if [the North Korea-US negotiations] remained in a good place, there are ups and downs. Along the way, we missed the chance for humanitarian aid,” said a South Korean government official who is familiar with North Korea-US dialogue.

“The US is afraid that humanitarian aid to North Korea might give the North some breathing room,” this official explained.

Indeed, the Unification Ministry tried to announce it was moving forward with delivering the US$8 million in aid during its status report to the National Assembly in 2018, but that was obstructed by the US. Meanwhile, Canada and other US allies have steadily provided aid to North Korea even as sanctions have continued.

“The fact is that, if the government really wanted to provide the humanitarian aid, it could just do so,” said a source in the government when I asked why the humanitarian aid wasn’t moving ahead.

That’s true. The government recently moved to provide US$300,000 for cyclone damage in Mozambique and US$3 million to Venezuela, which is facing a severe economic crisis, and Colombia, to help it house refugees. In March, the government decided to provide US$500,000 in aid for typhoon damage in Mozambique and US$200,000 for a measles outbreak in Madagascar. This year, it also allocated US$12 million in humanitarian aid for Syria, which has been rocked by a civil war since 2011, and its neighbors. And the government didn’t ask anyone for its permission before providing this aid.

Timing is important for humanitarian aid. North Korea was battered by Typhoon Soulik in September 2018. The International Red Cross officially stated that 76 people had lost their lives in the flooding and 75 people were missing and launched search and rescue efforts. Most of the missing people were children. While writing an article about that, I called an official at the Unification Ministry and asked whether there were any plans for emergency aid, considering that inter-Korean relations had improved since the inter-Korean summit. The official said that the government would consider any request it received from the North but that so far there hadn’t been any.

A report assessing North Korea’s food security that was published by the WFP and the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on May 3 said that North Korea’s food shortage would become more severe between July and September of this year. When the South Korean government provides funds to international organizations, it takes about six months before the recipients actually receive any food. But when the South Korean government sends food, such as rice and corn, directly to North Korea, it normally takes about one or two months for the aid to arrive. July is less than two months away.

By Noh Ji-won, staff reporter

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