2012 DPRK Humanitarian News
World Grain Prices and Food Availability in North Korea
May 7, 2012
In a post on his Witness to Transformation blog, Marcus Noland demonstrates the effect that world food prices have had on the availability of food in North Korea. It is not by accident that the three worst food emergencies in the past 20 years have coincided with periods of peak cereals prices," Noland writes.
Noland further notes that, despite a drop in global food prices in March, the broader trend has been increasing upward pressure on food prices, due to factors including rising prices for production inputs such as oil, water, and fertilizer; increasing global demand for meat, particularly in China; and diversion of stocks to ethanol production.
For the full post, click here.
South Korea Notifies the North on Debt Repayments
May 4, 2012
The South Korean government has notified North Korea that its first payment on a low-interest loan used to pay for food aid from 2000-2007 will be due next month, Fox News reports.
The $720 million loan paid for 2.6 million tons of rice and corn to be shipped across the DMZ in six tranches, as part of the Sunshine Policy of previous South Korean administrations. The loan was given an interest rate of one percent, with a twenty-year repayment period to begin after a ten-year grace period. The first payment will be worth $5.83 million.
For the full article, click here.
North Korea Leadership to Convene Large Conference on Food Cultivation
May 2, 2012
Good Friends reports that the North Korean leadership will convene a "Homeland Meeting" in early May in Pyongyang to discuss the DPRK's food shortage. The conference will reportedly be attended by officials from across North Korea, and will discuss cultivating new areas and responding to a shortage of farm labor due to hunger in breadbasket areas.
For the full article, click here.
Food Security along Chinese Border Stable as Situation in Interior Declines
April 25, 2012
Good Friends, citing an anonymous North Korean official, reports that the food situation in most of North Korea is worsening, with North and South Hwanghae Province particularly hard-hit. The official said that areas along the border with China were better off thanks to the cross-border trade.
The Good Friends newsletter also reported that the North Korean Ministry of Agriculture has ordered the purchase of 200,000 tons of fertilizer from abroad, and has allocated $2 million to repairing agricultural equipment.
For the full newsletter, click here.
Starvation Reported in South Hwanghae Province
April 23, 2012
The Choson Ilbo, citing the Japanese daily Tokyo Shimbun, reports that more than 20,000 North Koreans in South Hwanghae province have died of starvation since Kim Jong-il's death in December. The famine was caused by acute rain and flooding last year.
For the full article, click here.
Obama Administration Wrong to Link Food Aid to Politics: Los Angeles Times
April 22, 2012
An editorial in the Los Angeles Times argues that the Obama administration should not have linked geopolitics and humanitarian assistance in the Leap Day deal with North Korea:
The underlying problem is that food aid was linked to North Korean compliance in the first place. Had it not been, proceeding with the aid after the missile launch wouldn't have looked like a sign of weakness on the part of the U.S. And what of the future? White House Press Secretary Jay Carneysaid last week that if North Korea abandons its nuclear weapons program and abides by its international obligations, "there is an avenue available … to allow them to better feed and educate their people." Put another way, that means that hungry children will continue to be held hostage to the machinations of a rogue regime. Finding a way to feed those children remains a moral imperative.
For the full editorial, click here.
Are North Koreans Really Three Inches Shorter than South Koreans?
April 22, 2012
Richard Knight, writing for BBC News, examines the claim that North Koreans are significantly shorter on average than South Koreans due to the combination of chronic malnutrition in North Korea and rapid economic growth in South Korea. Professor Daniel Schwekendiek from Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul has studied the heights of North Korean refugees entering South Korea, and says that North Korean men are, on average, between three to eight centimeters shorter than their South Korean counterparts.
Dr. Schwekendiek said that measuring the refugee population can produce an estimate of North Korean society as a whole, because the refugees 'come from all social strata and from all regions." He says that he has also studies data collected by the North Korean government and by UN agencies working in North Korea.
For the full article, click here.
Iran Sends Humanitarian Aid to North Korea
Ynetnews reports that Iran has sent 85 tons of humanitarian aid to North Korea, including flour, powdered milk, and rice. The shipment was sent from Iran's Red Crescent Society.
For the full article, click here.
Bakery Charity Feeds North Korean Children
April 20, 2012
An article in the Christian Science Monitor reports on the London-based group Love North Korean Children, which has established four community bakeries in North Korea which feed 5,000 children one steamed bun a day. The organization is currently raising funds for a new bakery in Sariwon, and plans to ultimately build 26 bakeries across North Korea.
“Everybody in North Korea receives food supplies from the government to last three months,” said George Rhee, the head of the organization. “But people in rural areas only have food for one month. They have to go to the countryside to hunt [for] tree bark or corn. That’s why kids have to have these meals; otherwise, they wouldn’t have anything else to eat.”
For the full article, click here.
South Korea to Continue Aid to North Despite Rocket Launch
April 18, 2012
The Voice of America reports that the South Korean government will not cut off private relief agencies from providing humanitarian aid to North Korea. Unification Minister Yu Woo-ik said that while the South Korean government will take other punitive measures against North Korea in response to the rocket launch, private humanitarian efforts may continue.
For the full article, click here.
North Korea Threatens Retaliation for Cancellation of Food Aid
April 17, 2012
The Los Angeles Times reports that North Korea has threatened to take "retaliatory measures" in response to the U.S. decision to cancel its nutritional assistance program in the wake of North Korea's attempted satellite launch. The Korean Central News Agency stated that North Korea no longer feels bound by the food aid agreement, and "The U.S. will be held wholly accountable for all the ensuing consequences."
To read the full article, click here.
How Food Aid Can Undermine Kim Jong-un
April 15, 2012
In an op-ed for CNN.com, Gordon Chang argues that the Obama administration should not suspend food aid to North Korea, as it both meets a humanitarian need and subverts the regime's control of information in the country:
The three Kim rulers have maintained power by keeping the North Korean people sealed off from the rest of the world so that their propaganda would remain believable.
Food aid, if properly monitored, can help end this control on information. Food monitors, present in the country to ensure no diversion of aid, give the North Korean people an opportunity to meet outsiders and thereby get a different perspective on the world - and on their own society.
To read the full op-ed, click here.
U.S. Calls Off Food Aid to North Korea
April 13, 2012
AFP reports that the U.S. has called off plans to provide nutritional assistance to North Korea in the wake of the DPRK's failed satellite launch. "Their efforts to launch a missile clearly demonstrate that they could not be trusted to keep their commitments," said deputy national security advisor Ben Rhodes.
"Therefore we are not going forward with an agreement to provide them with any assistance."
To read the full article, click here.
North Korea has long put weapons ahead of food for its people
April 13, 2012
In a news analysis in the Los Angeles Times, Barbara Demick writes that North Korea has placed far more priority on its military than on feeding its population, and that the cancellation of emergency U.S. food aid provides only the latest example.
"Telling the North Koreans you're not going to feed their starving people if they launch a missile is like telling your 2-year-old you'll take away their broccoli if they don't behave," said an American aid official who asked not to be named because of the ongoing efforts to help feed the North's population.
To read the full article, click here.
As North Korean rocket launch nears, the hungry get hungrier
CNN reports that, as the U.S. threatens to withdraw its nutritional assistance program to North Korea in the face of an impending satellite launch, many North Koreans remain severely malnourished.
David Austin, Mercy Corps' program director for North Korea, described "an entire generation" of North Korean children who are "stunted physically, developmentally because of chronic malnutrition."
"I have real questions about whether we should have linked humanitarian food assistance to the nuclear missile program in the first place," said Mike Green, who was senior director for Asian affairs at the National Security Council during the Bush administration. "It is not the fault of the average North Korean who needs the food, who is at starvation level, that the regime is developing nuclear missiles."
To read the full article, click here.
Withholding Food Aid Won't Punish North Korea's Leadership
April 11, 2012
In an op-ed for the Chicago Tribune, Dorothy Stuehmke argues that further isolating North Korea will not lead to change, and that withholding food aid only punishes the vulnerable:
Perhaps a satellite launch should not justify, by itself, the cancellation of a negotiated U.S. food aid program. The U.S. now claims that the satellite launch purportedly demonstrates North Korea's inability to allow food aid monitoring. America maintains this position in spite of the United Nations World Food Program's successful food aid program in North Korea as well as the improved standards that the U.S. reached with North Korea under their recent food aid agreement. What people should not lose sight of is that these types of programs have the proven track record of forcing North Korea to remain engaged and leave its comfort zone of isolation
To read the full op-ed, click here.
Food Crisis in South Hwanghae Province
April 4, 2012
Good Friends reports that hunger is mounting in North Korea's South Hwanghae province. The newsletter states that the halt in trading activities during the 100-day mourning period for Kim Jong-il exacerbated the problems caused by heavy rains last summer.
To read the full report, click here.
North Korea Criticizes US Suspension of Food Aid
March 31, 2012
Bloomberg News reports that North Korea has criticized the US decision to suspend its planned nutritional assistance program if the DPRK moves forward on its planned satellite launch, calling it an overreaction "beyond the limit."
Suspending food aid “would be a regrettable act” scrapping the entire Feb. 29 agreement between the two nations, North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency said.
North Korea maintains that its Kwangmyongsong-3 is a “scientific and technological satellite for peaceful purposes,”
For the Bloomberg article, click here. For the KCNA statement, click here.
Details of the US-DPRK Beijing Talks
March 30, 2012
In an analysis of the "leap day deal" and the subsequent North Korean announcement of a pending satellite launch, Reuters recounts the history of US-DPRK relations under the Obama administration and reports on the details of recent negotiations on North Korea's nuclear and missile moratorium and U.S. nutritional assistance.
Citing U.S. officials involved in the talks, the article says that a U.S. assessment of North Korea's food needs had found chronic malnutrition throughout the country, but not famine. The officials also stated that the U.S. had made it clear to North Korea that any launches using ballistic missile technology would be considered a violation of the moratorium.
The proposed nutritional assistance program would have greatly increased the presence of foreign aid workers, and would have included new monitoring methods to ensure that targeted populations were receiving aid. "This would be a big leap forward in what we have been able to do," said Jim White, vice president of operations for Mercy Corps, one of the NGOs preparing to implement the program.
For the full article, click here.
Who is in Charge of US Humanitarian Policy?
March 29, 2012
Writing for Foreign Policy, Mike Magan argues that humanitarian assistance to North Korea is needed, but that linking a program to political issues sets a bad precedent. Noting that a Defense Department official was the first to confirm the suspension of the U.S. nutritional assistance program, Magan asks:
Why has the administration allowed the Department of Defense to announce food assistance has been halted?
It was Special Envoy King and a senior representative from USAID who were responsible for negotiating the resumption of food assistance during the March meetings.
It begs the question -- who is in charge of U.S. humanitarian policy in North Korea and what is the Obama administration's overall strategy?
Until a coherent strategy is articulated, questions will continue to be asked about the philosophical and practical origins of this administration's approach to humanitarian assistance and the need for North Korea to halt its nuclear agenda. These are, and should remain, separate issues.
For the full article, click here.
NGO Criticizes US Suspension of Food Aid
March 29, 2012
A U.S.-based aid agency that had been preparing to implement the U.S. nutritional assistance program to North Korea has criticized the suspension of the program in the wake of North Korea's announcement of a planned satellite launch, Radio Free Asia reports.
Despite the Obama administration's insistence that the political and humanitarian issues are not linked, “There is evidently a strong linkage in the negotiations between the U.S. and North Korea—the linkage being an exchange for discontinuation of enriching uranium in swap for food," said Ken Isaacs, Vice President of Samaritan's Purse.
“And I think it’s unfortunate, because in the end it’s going to be the people in the rural areas of North Korea that we know are hungry and malnourished—they’re going to be the ones that suffer,” Isaacs added.
For the full article, click here.
US Suspends Food Assistance to North Korea
March 28, 2012
The United States has suspended its planned nutritional assistance program to North Korea, Voice of America reports.
Peter Lavoy, Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense (Policy) for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs, told a congressional hearing that the U.S. is working closely with its allies to to try to discourage North Korea from proceeding on its planned satellite launch, and that North Korea's inability to follow through on its commitment to the nuclear and missile moratorium has raised concerns about the U.S. nutritional assistance program.
"We have been forced to suspend our activities to provide nutritional assistance to North Korea largely because we have now no confidence that the monitoring mechanisms to ensure that the food assistance goes to the starving people and not the regime elite," Lavoy said.
For the full article, click here. For more information on the hearing, click here.
Obama Warns Satellite Launch May Jeopardize Aid
March 26, 2012
Speaking at a joint press conference with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak in Seoul, President Barack Obama said that "it would be extremely difficult to move forward" with planned nutritional assistance if North Korea moves forward with its planned satellite launch.
"It’s very difficult to have monitors at a period of tension and friction. And it is difficult to provide aid if you don’t think that it’s going to get to the people who actually need it," said Obama.
To read the full transcript, click here.
US NGOs Call for Resumption of Proposed Aid Program
March 23, 2012
In a recent press release, five US NGOs involved with humanitarian assistance to North Korea called on the US and North Korean governments to resolve the political impasse blocking the delivery of a proposed nutritional assistance program to North Korea, and urged the delinking of politics and humanitarian assistance.
"Delay or potential cancellation of this program would violate humanitarian principles which hold that lifesaving assistance should not be used to achieve political aims," the statement said. In prior visits to North Korea, the NGOs had repeatedly witnessed "extensive food insecurity and malnutrition, especially among young children, pregnant and nursing mothers and hospitalized patients."
For the full press release, click here.
US Warns It Won't Send Food Aid if North Korea Launches Rocket Next Month
March 16, 2012
After North Korea's announcements of its plans to launch a satellite next month, the US has said that the planned shipment of nutritional assistance may not go ahead, the AP reports.
State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said that the launch would not create an atmosphere conducive to the food shipments and would bring Pyongyang's good faith into question.
Nuland added, "we did warn them that we considered that a satellite launch of this kind would be an abrogation" of the moratorium on North Korea's nuclear and missile programs that the two countries announced last month.
To read the full story, click here.
North Korea Said to Reject Monitored Private Aid Shipments from South Korea
Citing anonymous officials from South Korean relief agencies, Yonhap News reports that North Korea will not accept private humanitarian aid shipments from South Korea that come with monitoring conditions. Yonhap's sources said that North Korea will only accept "pure" humanitarian aid from the South. The move comes as the US and North Korea worked out the details for a shipment of 240,000 metric tons of monitored nutritional assistance to the DPRK.
Last year, South Korean civic groups donated nearly 3,000 tons of flour to North Korea and some of the civic groups sent monitors to the North to try to ensure the transparency of the distribution of their food aid.
To read the full story, click here.
US Envoy Optimistic after Talks on North Korea Food Aid
"We resolved the administrative issues that we were concerned with," King said Thursday before leaving for Washington to report the results of the discussions. He described the meetings as "very productive, positive talks."
He added, though, that the timing of the food deliveries was not yet clear. "We're still working on the details," he said. "Not all of those questions have been worked out."
To read the full article, click here.
Should US Food Aid Be Made in China?
The International Herald Tribune's Mark McDonald takes a look at US policies for sourcing food aid, taking a particular look at how it might affect the shipment of US nutritional assistance to North Korea. "By U.S. law, nearly all food aid — literally from soup to nuts — must be purchased domestically and then shipped abroad," McDonald writes. But "a more cost-efficient approach would have the federal government buying food directly from foreign providers located closer to recipient countries. In the North Korea deal, for example, neighboring China seems the likeliest vendor. Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia are other possibilities."
To read the full article, click here.
US Officials to Finalize Agreement for North Korea Food Aid
March 5, 2012
The AP reports that Special Envoy for North Korean Human Rights Robert King and USAID Deputy Assistant Administrator Jon Brause will meet with their North Korean counterparts in Beijing on Wednesday to finalize the details of a 240,000 metric ton US nutritional assistance program to North Korea.
"The idea is to finalize all of the technical arrangements so that the nutritional assistance can begin to move," spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters.
To read the full article, click here.
US, North Korea Announce Plans for Nuclear Freeze, Food Aid
Following the US-DPRK exploratory talks in Beijing this week, North Korea has agreed to implement a moratorium on nuclear tests, missile launches, and nuclear activities at Yongbyon, including its enrichment program, as announced by both the State Department and KCNA. North Korea has also agreed to allow IAEA inspectors to return to the country to verify and monitor the moratorium on enrichment and the disablement of its 5-MW reactor and related facilities at Yongbyon. Both sides reaffirmed their commitment to the September 19, 2005 agreement and the U.S. reaffirmed that "it does not have hostile intent toward the DPRK and is prepared to take steps to improve our bilateral relationship in the spirit of mutual respect for sovereignty and equality."
The US and North Korea will also meet in the near future to discuss monitoring conditions for 240,000 metric tons of nutritional assistance, with the prospect of additional assistance based on continued need. The Korea Herald reports that North Korea sought 50,000 tons of corn in addition to the 240,000 tons of nutritional assistance that was first outlined last December.
For more resources and analysis on this deal, see NCNK's briefing book.
What Does 240,000 Metric Tons of Food Mean for North Korea?
US Military Official Says Food Aid to North Korea Tied to Nuclear Progress
"There are conditions that are going along with the negotiations with regard to the extent of food aid," Admiral Willard told the US Senate Armed Forces Committee.
He said "preconditions" for assistance "now include discussions of cessation of nuclearisation and ballistic missile testing and the allowance of IAEA perhaps back into Yongbyon [reactor]".
To read the BBC story, click here. For video of Admiral Williard's congressional testimony, click here.
US Says No Decision yet on Food Aid to North Korea
“No decisions have been made on the six-party talks side or on the nutritional assistance side,” State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland said at a press briefing.
China, North Korea Discuss Food Aid
“They exchanged views on bilateral relations and on international and regional areas of common interest,” said a spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “Of course both sides agreed to maintain traditional friendly relations, but also to work toward the early restarting of the Six-Party Talks for the sake of the peace and security of the Chosun Peninsula.”
“They also debated the issue of food support for Chosun. China welcomes giving various forms of assistance to Chosun.”
To read the full article, click here.
Seoul City Government to Spent $4 Million on Inter-Korean Exchange Programs this Year
To read the full story, click here.
Conflicting Reports on Future of WFP's Emergency Aid to North Korea
The UN World Food Programme's emergency aid mission to North Korea, which began in April of last year, is scheduled to end in March. The Korea Herald reports that the WFP plans to extend its program, as it was unable to fully address the food crisis which began last year. However, the Chosun Ilbo reports that the emergency mission will indeed end in March, and that the WFP will thereafter switch back to its smaller-scale nutritional assistance program.
North Korea Edges toward Crisis as Nuclear Talks Begin
As the US and the DPRK prepare for their first talks since Kim Jong-un assumed power, North Korea faces a difficult humanitarian picture, the Interdependent reports. The UN estimates that the country will need 400,000 tons of grain in 2012 to prevent a food deficit. While its humanitarian situation has improved somewhat since the flooding last summer, the country continues to face chronic malnutrition. "The situation has improved on the level of food availability," said Marcus Prior, Asia spokesperson for the UN World Food Programme, "but we remain concerned about the level of nutrition, especially for children in poorer areas."
Randall Ireson: Developing the DPRK through Agriculture
Writing in 38 North, Randall Ireson discusses how North Korea can revive its agricultural sector. "There are no technical obstacles to greatly increased farm productivity," he writes, and many farms in North Korea have started to adopt the practices international NGOs have brought over the last fifteen years. The larger problem, he writes, is institutional:
grain production quotas inhibit wider planting of soybean and other legumes. The requirement that farms sell all surplus grain to the state at a price less than 5% of its free-market value insures that no more than minimum effort is directed to maize and rice farming. Farm workers give more attention to the production of vegetables, small animals, and fruit which can be sold for a profit in the farmers’ markets, but which do not substantially boost the national food balance."
To read the full article, click here.
Mort Abramowitz: US Hypocrisy Starves North Korea
Writing in The National Interest, Mort Abramowitz argues that the Obama administration has dithered on providing food aid to North Korea, putting its impoverished people at risk.
Amidst all the speculation about the future of North Korea’s leadership, a critical problem remains unresolved: the country has a major food problem affecting its most vulnerable and poorest populations, which even Pyongyang acknowledges could result in another humanitarian disaster. Despite the importuning of its humanitarian organizations and the contributions of other countries, the United States has sat by and watched.
To read the full article, click here.
China to send large food, oil shipments to North Korea: Tokyo Shimbun
The Daily NK, citing the Japanese newspaper Tokyo Shimbun, reports that China is planning to send large amounts of food and crude oil to North Korea in an attempt to provide stability to the country's political succession. Citing anonymous sources in China and North Korea, the newspaper says that China will provide 500,000 of food aid and 250,000 of fuel oil.
To read to Daily NK Story, click here.
N. Korea Warns South but Accepts Food Aid
January 27, 2012
The New York Times reports that North Korea has warned that a South Korean military drill around front-line islands could turn into "full-scale war," as South Korean trucks carrying food aid for North Korean children crossed the border. The 180 tons of flour sent by the Korea Peace Foundation, a private organization, were the first South Korean shipments of food to the North since the death of Kim Jong-il on December 17.
To read the story, click here.
U.S. Remains Cautious on Food Aid to North Korea
The Los Angeles Times reports that the U.S. remains cautious on providing food aid to North Korea, as the first aid shipments from South Korea and China to the DPRK after Kim Jong-il's death move ahead. "The ball is in North Korea's court; they asked to postpone the negotiations when Kim Jong Il died," Ralph A. Cossa, president of Pacific Forum CSIS, told the Times.
To read the full story, click here.
North Korea Sends Signals on Food Aid Negotiations
A statement from North Korea's Foreign Ministry has indicated a willingness to open further negotiations with the United States concerning a suspension of its uranium enrichment program and food aid. The statement also accused the US of "politicizing" food aid. It claimed that American negotiators had previously offered to send humanitarian aid and temporarily lift economic sanctions if North Korea suspended its uranium enrichment program, but added that "the U.S. has drastically changed the amount and items of provision" of its food aid package relative to a previous offer. "We will watch if the U.S. truly wants to build confidence," the statement concludes.
To read the North Korean statement, click here. For the New York Times' coverage of the story, click here.
Humanitarian Aid Worker Opposes Providing Grains to North Korea
Posted at the Witness to Transformation blog, Suzanne Scholte interviews an anonymous humanitarian aid worker with years of experience working in North Korea. The aid worker states that, based on his personal experience and interviews with defectors, much of the food aid sent to North Korea is diverted. He says he therefore opposes sending commodities such as rice and corn to North Korea, but that he supports aid such as "high nutrition and therapeutic supplements and other such food items for children, the elderly, pregnant and nursing mothers."
To read the interview, click here.
North Korea Renews Food Aid Talks
The Korea Herald, citing Japanese media coverage, reports that North Korea reopened food aid talks with the US in late December 2011 following the funeral of Kim Jong-il, and that Pyongyang is requested more rice, corn, and other grains in the package than the US had previously suggested. In the mid-December negotiations prior to the death of Kim Jong-il, the US focused its proposed aid package on providing nutritional supplements for vulnerable groups.
To read the full report, click here.
