2012 DPRK Humanitarian News

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.