[imText1]Washington D.C. — Is North Korea currently experiencing a mass starvation? That was the question posed by the President of Open Radio for North Korea and Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellow Dr. Ha Tae Keung at a KORUS House Forum in Washington D.C. on July 17th.
Due to the difficulty in obtaining up-to-date and accurate information about North Korea’s internal situation, Dr. Ha cited varying figures compiled by the Ministry of Unification (MOU), the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) and a South Korean NGO Good Friends regarding the current food situation in the country. As a result, he urged that the international community should focus on finding and gathering facts to inform their policy-making.
The question raised in April of this year was “How many people will die this year without food aid?” Dr. Ha alluded to the difference between the food situation at hand and the mass-scale famine in the early 1990s, where North Korean citizens did not have as much access to the market, mobility, nor connections with the outside world. However, Dr. Ha emphasized that more food aid does not necessarily improve the situation, as 60-70% of North Korean refugees living in Seoul reported they have never received any kind of food aid.
Furthermore, Dr. Ha elucidated the debate surrounding the current food situation by describing the two camps into which people roughly fall. One believes that there is an extreme food shortage taking place in North Korea, resulting in 300-450,000 deaths between the months of May to July. They report that the food shortage is around 1,800,000 metric tons and that food should be delivered immediately, without being attached to any conditions. People of this camp are often proponents of the Sunshine Policy upheld by the last two administrations in South Korea.
On the other hand, there are those who believe that although the food situation is worse than in previous years, it has not reached the point of extreme starvation and that few people are actually starving to death. According to this camp, the shortage is difficult to assess due to the illegal cereal trade. They believe that food aid policy should focus on transparency of distribution.
He described certain indicators of food shortage, including surges in food prices on which the Daily NK and Good Friends have been reporting since earlier this year, to add to the debate. Other indicators include increases in the number of refugees and orphans, the increase in the mobility of the population in search of food, and change in people’s diet. Given these myriad of complex factors, Dr. Ha stressed that NGOs need greater access to North Korea’s internal situation.
Dr. Ha concluded by saying that the food shortage in North Korea will not be solved by simply sending more food aid. He proposed a food aid program targeted to certain regions of the country and designed to strengthen existing markets, with distribution transparency as an essential element. He further highlighted the need to provide incentives for more food imports.
