The US and South Korea are at odds with the United Nations World Food Program over how seriously North Korea is suffering from lack of food and are in no hurry to resume feeding the North's hungry people.| Once again the UN apparatchiks are bound and determined to get a two-fer: preserve and protect their phony-baloney jobs while aiding a 'socialist' government. |
South Korean leaders appeared relieved when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently made it clear that the US did not believe North Korea had addressed "serious concerns about monitoring" food distribution. The US still wants to know what happened to 20,000 tons of rice that's strongly believed to have gone to North Korean soldiers when a US food aid program was suspended two years ago.
Ms. Clinton's remarks echoed those of South Korean officials who have been extremely anxious to see whether the US would yield to North Korean entreaties after a team led by US human rights envoy Robert King went to North Korea last month.
"We should be sure the food should not be misdirected and we have a clear monitoring system," says Park Jin-eun, director of the inter-Korea policy division at South Korea's foreign ministry. "The US is in the same position."
A central question is whether North Korea needs emergency shipments as called for by the World Food Program. Yes, Ms. Park acknowledges, "The problem this year is changed by flood and winter cold," but the widespread view here is that North Korea basically has enough food.
It's believed that North Korea wants to stockpile food for celebrations planned next year to mark the 100-year anniversary of the birth of the late Kim Il-sung, the long-reigning "Great Leader" who died in 1994 after passing on power to his son, current leader Kim Jong-il.
| And for the military, to the extent they can. |
| Unequal distribution has always been the problem in a workers paradise, hasn't it. The elites at the top take care of themselves and their agendas first, and if the |
Marcus Prior, the WFP's Asia spokesman, says "the situation is not at the level of the mid-1990s" when as many as two million people are believed to have died of starvation and disease. But he notes that "bilateral and humanitarian assistance has declined dramatically in recent years."
| There's a reason for that, Mr. Prior, can you elucidate what it is? |
The UN's concerns
The WFP is concerned at the level of food stocks and the health of the most vulnerable women and children, says Mr. Prior.
| Shades of the New York Times... |
Kwon Eun-kyung, an editor at the Daily NK, which puts out daily reports here about North Korea problems, says defectors and other sources inside North Korea contradict the WFP's assessment.
"Within the boundary of authority, the food situation may be difficult," she says. "People get by, farming themselves. They find a way to survive by bartering or selling goods. It is not the same as the report by the WFP."
North Korea "uses many tactics to get more aid, she says. "The US right now is not in such a hurry to help North Korea with food. The situation is not so desperate."
Nor is Ms. Kwon impressed by recurrent reports of cannibalism.
"That is not the latest news," she says. "We have had many stories since the last famine" -- that is, in the 1990s. "Some defectors have testified to that. Not many people believed that story."
| Update at 1000 CT: in response to Angimp's comment (#1 below), it's too bad we don't follow the Jerry Pournelle rule on this one. Recall that the good Mr. Pournelle pointed out that we could solve the Libyan problem by offering $200 million and a blank, valid US passport in exchange for the severed head of the Duck of Death. Apply this to North Korea: if the people of that long-suffering country will simply string up Kimmie, his son and their henchmen to the closest convenient lampposts in Pyongyang, we'll guarantee fine dining for all the people there for the next five years. We would, of course, want video. And autopsies. It's cheaper than maintaining the defense of South Korea. |