People Were Imprisoned because of International Aids

[imText1]In order to ascertain availability of North Korean people to humanitarian aids, I met a 50-year old male North Korean resident in Shenyang City of Liaoning, China, early September.

The person, called Mr. Lee, was from Kowon, South Hamkyong Province, and had been visiting China since mid-August. He testified an astonishing story.

According to Mr. Lee, many North Korean people were imprisoned or executed for ‘embezzlement of national property.’ Also, international aids, Lee said, rather worsened discrimination of common people without power or wealth.

Following is the full text of the interview.

-Are North Korean residents aware of South Korean and the international society’s humanitarian aid to NK?

“Of course they are. But it doesn’t matter. People can’t ask the state to distribute the humanitarian aids equally to us. If we do so, we’ll be punished.”

– What do you mean ‘be punished’?

“In every provinces and counties, there are public officials who have been imprisoned. Let’s say some food from international aid agency arrive at Wonsan Harbor. Then some portion is directly headed to the army, some other goes to national construction projects. The rest are allocated to the residents including Giupsos (state owned enterprise).

Each administrative district (province, city, county) is ordered to take the assigned amount of food by itself. And corruption occurs at that point. We don’t have enough gasoline and diesel oil for transportation. Ordinary Giupsos must procure their own transportation means and gasoline to carry food from harbor.

The problem is how to ‘procure.’ Such powerful party organs like armies, foreign-currency earning divisions are provided with enough gasoline and diesel. And they sell the oil to the people with ridiculously high price.

Currently in mountainous area, 1 kg of rice costs 750 to 800 won ($0.25 to $0.27), and a liter of gasoline costs almost same. Giupsos collect money from workers to buy gasoline for carrying the allocated food from port to the company office.

Distribution of food in each district is local food office’s jurisdiction. Food offices store the food that each local Giupso brought in and distribute it to the residents via ration center. Those workers who paid for gasoline receive food.

Real problem occurs then. Local ration centers are troubled by party officials, National Security agents and Social Safety agents (police). They claim their share. If claims are neglected, there will be more harm from them in the future. Workers request food in exchange for what they paid before, and party officials ask food in exchange for their power and authority.

Bureaucrats in ration center are facing dilemma between workers and party officials. I am sure that more than 70 to 80 percent of the imprisoned ration office bureaucrats failed to satisfy both sides and are falsely accused of fraud.”

-I heard that there are some people die because of the aid. How is that so?

“Some people are executed for misappropriation of the aids. Others who are imprisoned for fraud might die in prison. There are such cases in every province, city and county.”

-Then, do only the workers who paid money before receive food?

“Yes. Those without money are not rationed. Although the international society provides humanitarian aids for free, once the aids come into North Korea, people must buy them. No money, no food.”

– Do people live with the food they receive?

“No. Whether received enough food or rationed with the amount that barely covers their livelihood, people sell back some of the food to a Jangmadang (a kind of black-market) in order to earn money for gasoline or other basic supplies.”

– In other words, international humanitarian aids are benefiting only the party officials and other people of power.

“Exactly. In (North) Korea, only power holders are becoming rich. They obtain aided goods with cheap price and sell them back to the Jangmadang. Ordinary people buy food from the Jangmadang, afterward.”

– How much portion of the aid is stolen and sold by government officials?

“I estimate about half of the aid is appropriated by the army, 30 percent by officials and the rest is sold in the Jangmadang.”

– It is known that international inspectors from the World Food Program and other organizations are observing food distribution in NK.

“As I know of, there are 10 of them, but they are inadequate. They just watch the residents receiving the food at ration centers. They by no means could figure out whether people pay price or receive food for free. And we cannot tell them what is actually going on.”

– Then how can we distribute food to those who are actually starving?

“First of all, the international society must comprehend the reality. Otherwise, no humanitarian aid might be better. If there is no aid, then at least there would be no imprisonment or execution because of fraud. Obviously, we need much more food. But if it goes on in this way, people without money will continue to suffer.”

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