[imText1]In the midst of 40,000 tons of rice delivery on the 5th to the North by the South Korean government, the position that rice aid is not properly relayed to North Korean citizens was revealed after investigating actual conditions from defectors.
“The Committee for the Democratization of North Korea” announced the “Investigation Results of Rice Loan Distribution” at a press conference on the 6th, “Most of the rice that South Korea sends has been misappropriated for North Korean army provisions.”
Further, it maintained, “Fertilizer sent to North Korea has been resold to earn foreign currency to foreign countries and additional humanitarian aid goods have also been diverted for intelligence operation against South Korea.”
The South Korean government started sending 150,000 tons of rice aid in 1995 and since 2000, over 400,000 tons of rice have been sent to North Korea as annual loans. 400,000 tons of rice can feed North Korean citizens for about 40 days.
President Hwang Jang Yop said through the introductory speech read by Hong Soon Kyung, the president of Association of the North Korean Defectors, “The reasons why North Korean citizens are starving are not due to the lack of foreign food aid, but free economic activity which enables self-sufficiency and sustainability of the citizens does not exist. This is ultimately because they lack freedom and human rights.” President Hwang also said, “Subsequently, giving North Korean citizens human rights and freedom is the path to giving them the right to live and the path for North and South Korea coexistence.”
He also said, “The sunshine policy of the last 10 years was sunshine of darkness and was a policy irrelevant to North Korean citizens. It only fattened up the North Korean authorities. The South Korean government, ignoring the words of defectors, has continued its baseless lies as if aid to North Korea has been properly conducted.”
The organization held a questionnaire investigation from October 7th through 31st of 250 defectors who, after leaving North Korea in 1998, have settled down in South Korea and are residing in Seoul and the Metropolitan Area. Further, in-depth month-long interviews of defectors who have left North Korea after 2000, including high-level leaders and six defectors from Nampo and Pyongyang, were carried out in November.
According to investigation results, only 7.6 percent (19 people) out of 250 subjects received South Korean food aid through local food distribution offices. These 19 people reported that the amount they received was not enough to feed them for a month or for 15 days, but received 1~2kg on special occasions, such as Kim Jong Il’s birthday.
In response to the question, “Where does South Korea’s rice aid go?” 60 percent of respondents (151 people) said, “They go to the army.” In addition, 41% (103 people) said, “They go to the party leaders” and 16.4% (41 people) said, “They go to other political organizations.” Also, 12.8% (32 people) said, “retired leaders” receive South Korean rice. Only 1.6% (4 people) said, “Average civilians and the lowest class receive aid.”
Also, in a questionnaire regarding site monitoring of international or South Korean organizations, it was revealed that 7.2% (18 people) out of 250 replied to international organizations that they had received provisions according to North Korea’s instructions, even though they did not actually receive provisions. For example, they replied after receiving the command from the authorities, “Say you received 2kg each from the UN inspectorate.”
The secretary general Sohn Jung Hoon said, “Average North Korean civilians do not cheer even when South Korean rice aid comes in.” They (North Korean citizens) are eliminated from the list of support recipients and the aid goes to the army or citizen controlling organizations such as the National Security Agency or People’s Safety Agency only, which increase the threat to civilians.
Mr. Sohn urged, “Controlling disciplines have been relaxed when food provisions for the NSA-level officials ceased during the food shortage of the mid-1990s. Therefore, defectors who endured this period were hungry at that time, but experienced freedom.”
Kim Tae San, a defector who was a manager of a North Korean shoe factory in the Czech Republic, criticized, “If South Korea is going to support North Korea, they can help North Korean civilians and see results from North Korean policies by listening to defectors’ counsel, but the government does not take the words of defectors seriously.”
Park Myung Ho, who worked 20 years in the North Korean People’s Army, received attention by saying, “I ate South Korean rice in the army and when defecting, brought that rice as emergency ration.”
However, he said, “I was not thankful towards South Korea when I ate South Korean rice in the Army. The Army continuously educated us, saying that the rice was from the (Kim Jong Il) General, not directly from the South.”
The Committee sent the materials which were reported on this day to the Ministry of Reunification and expressed, “We will make an effort so that the results will be reflected in the government’s North Korean policy in the future.”
