Dave Eberhart, NewsMax
Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2003

Although the Pyongyang government points to a new get-tough-on-the-rules stance by the U.S., in fact, America -- the largest food donor to North Korea in 2002, delivering 155,000 metric tons -- is poised to contribute through the World Food Program another 105,000 metric tons beginning late April.

That contribution would bring the value of U.S. food aid to North Korea since 1995 to $591 million. According to the WFP, six million of North Korea’s population of 22 million is dependent on food aid and more than half the country is malnourished.

The United States is, however, threatening to enforce restrictions on food aid to North Korea, a development that comes just two months after North Korea informed the United States that it was developing uranium-based nuclear weapons in violation of a 1994 agreement.

The U.S. State Department has informed North Korea that food aid depends on its improving access by international monitors to areas where donated food is delivered. But this contingency is nothing new and has always been a stipulation to food aid.

Dwindling Resources

Also in the food aid equation is a looming development in the Surplus Commodity Disposal Program, which provides resources for much of the U.S. contributions to the WFP. These resources may indeed be scaled back or eliminated in FY 2003.

Although an increase in funding under public law is supposed to offset the loss or scaling back of the SCDP, some experts have voiced concern that such measures will not be sufficient to match current funding levels.

Adding to the dilemma, the WFP has noted a lack of donations that has already caused it to suspend food deliveries to 675,000 schoolchildren and 350,000 elderly people in North Korea. Recently, donor countries have pledged only about half of the 611,000 tons of food aid requested by the WFP for North Korea.

Rick Corsino, WFP country director for North Korea, says his organization is concerned about the sharp drop-off in food donations and is urging the international community to contribute $201 million in food deliveries to North Korea in 2003.

“It is vitally important to get adequate pledges promptly if we are to repair the damage caused by enforced aid stoppages since September that have deprived three million of the hungriest children, women and elderly people of badly needed help,” Corsino said.

Adding to the mix: the U.S. is facing increasing demands for food donations from elsewhere, particularly in Africa. According to the WFP, Africa faces an unprecedented hunger crisis, with 38 million people threatened by starvation.

To date Pyongyang has not responded to the U.S. recent request to get monitors back overseeing food aid distribution. So far, however, the U.S. State Department has not acted on the impasse, saying only that the United States will consider the World Food Program appeal for food donations in 2003 based on the availability of U.S. food stocks, competing needs around the world, and the ability to monitor distribution.

Meanwhile as the dilemma comes around full circle, N. Koreans suffer. “Some people are eating tree bark in the absence of other food,” said one WFP official. “If we do not get more contributions, people will die.”

According to reports, non-governmental organizations based in the N. Korean capital have already started leaving the country, complaining that the N. Koreans have been charging them tens of thousands of dollars to set up offices in Pyongyang.

According to a congressional report, the United States has replaced the Soviet Union as the primary benefactor of North Korea, now feeding more than one-third of all North Koreans.

That same report quoted one U.S. aid worker in North Korea as calling the food monitoring system a “scam,” noting that more than 90 percent of food aid distribution sites in N. Korea have never been visited by a food aid monitor. Additionally, the N. Koreans have never divulged a complete list of where aid is distributed.

In contrast to other recipient nations, international monitors in North Korea must schedule their visits in advance and must be escorted at all times. They have been denied access to 48 of the country’s 211 counties. All paperwork and account statements are handled by North Korean authorities, and the government officials do not permit any spot checks or unrestricted access to warehouses.

The report also cites interviews with North Koreans who fled to China, relating personal accounts of food aid being distributed to the communist cadre or to the military. A U.S. House of Representatives staff delegation that visited North Korea in 1998 also saw donated food in the possession of the Korean People’s Army.

Additionally, cans of food from a private aid organization were found on a North Korean submarine that ran aground off South Korea in 1997. More recently, U.S.-based World Concern, suspended its relief work in North Korea after discovering that 689 boxes of food, intended for hospitals and orphanages, had vanished.

Food From the Black Market

According to one study, only six percent of North Koreans depend on their government’s food aid distribution system for subsistence. Instead, a desperate populace has turned to illegal farmers’ markets for food. The government has basically turned a blind eye to the illegal markets, concentrating on getting food distributions out to people in the capital city, workers in critical industries, and party cadres.

In the past, North Korea has had a record of being formally charged with violations of the Memorandum of Understanding regarding food aid distributions. For example, in September 1999, a monitoring team reported on the apparent diversion of 1,200 metric tons of wheat.

Theoretically, with the latest N. Korean blanket refusal to abide by the food aid rules, the penalty could be a catastrophic cutoff. Whether this will happen remains to be seen.

During his February 2002 visit to South Korea, President Bush acknowledged the importance of such assistance, stating at the time that the U.S. would provide humanitarian assistance to the North Korean people regardless of whether or not dialogue with the North Korean government was resumed.

Now it is a question of whether the life-saving aid will continue regardless of whether the country abides by the inspection rules and regardless of whether it continues on its open and notorious road to nuclear weaponry.

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:

North Korea

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