With the EU decision to restart the flow of food to North Korea, the conflict over aid has been revitalized. Now, recently arrived defectors have given their opinions at a meeting with reporters to commemorate the groundbreaking ceremony for the 2nd Hanawon complex near Hwacheon in Gangwon Province.
Launching today’s meeting, Yang, a 46-year old female currently in the South Korean government’s education program at Hanawon following her March, 2011 defection, repeated a familiar refrain, saying, “Rice aid given by the Republic of Korea does not go to normal people; the bulk of it goes into the jangmadang or to soldiers.”
Yang went on, “In particular, if an individual is given 10kg, then the cadres above him or her all get some and the amount for the individual is only a few kilos.”
“If monitors from the UN go to a nursery, when they go then the cadres come again. In the end, the rice goes to Party and military cadres, it never goes to the ordinary people,” she added, concluding, “My parents are still in North Korea, yet because food aid does not go to the people, I do not want to see aid support going there.”
Kim, a 20-year old male who recently arrived across the MDL added on the same subject, “I heard the rumor that food aid had come from South Chosun a number of times, but people say they didn’t catch a glimpse of any. The people are suffering in many ways due to food shortages, but because it goes to military grain stores, military bases and the National Security Agency, it does not go to the ordinary people.”
Elsewhere, Yang gave a human face to stories of suffering in the aftermath of the currency redenomination (in which the currency was redenominated to the tune of 100:1), saying, “I borrowed 8 million North Korean won to buy 150 pairs of shoes to sell, but after the currency redenomination I couldn’t even get 1,000 won for a pair and had to sell them for 500 won each. In the end, I couldn’t repay the debt and my house was seized. Life was simply too difficult, so I defected.”
“Kim Jong Eun has formed strike forces to search houses and crackdown on restricted items and say they can’t be sold,” she added. “Since the currency redenomination, popular resistance has gotten larger so these kinds of crackdowns are happening. Restrictions are now so tight that it has become the kind of society where people can’t talk to each other and can’t trust each other.
