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Category: Famine & Food Aid

November 21, 2006

The Case for Starving the People

I noticed this interesting graf in a story about the effect of the luxury  items sanctions in UNSCR 1718.  For reasons that escape me entirely, some people believe that it’s counterproductive to bar Kim Jong Il from buying sashimi, S-Class sedans, and Omega watches while his people are starving – to – death,  some seem so quick to forget. Over past years, U.S. leaders have described the North Korean regime as an axis of evil, an outpost of tyranny, an...
Categories "United" Nations/Famine & Food Aid/Kim Jong Il/Korean Education/Washington Views
November 11, 2006

North Korea’s Food Crisis and the Theory of Comparative Advantage

Donor fatigue has hit the World Food Program’s much-reduced North Korea operations: James Morris, the agency’s outgoing chief, told the WFP executive board session in Rome earlier this week that the operation in North Korea “is dramatically underfunded.” “If we are to continue, and you overwhelmingly have said you want us to stay there and want us to be helpful in addressing the humanitarian agenda, we are going to need some help,” he said. “Otherwise, come February, we will be...
Categories "United" Nations/Famine & Food Aid
November 10, 2006

The Next Food Crisis, Part 1: DLA Piper Report: N. Korean Famine A ‘Crime Against Humanity’

I’ve finally finished reading the DLA Piper report, which calls on the U.N. Security Council to invoke Chapter VI, and then Chapter VII, against North Korea for the crime of failing to protect its population.  As regular readers know, I’ve long placed the North Korean famine at the top of the list of its crimes against humanity, and now, for the first time, a published scholarly report is making that same accusation and tying it to specific provisions of international...
Categories "United" Nations/Famine & Food Aid/Human Rights
November 10, 2006

The Next Food Crisis, Part 2: Will Josette Sheeran Stop the Next Great Famine?

As the reports on North Korea’s food situation continue to grow more dire, I’m no longer alone in warning that the country is again on the brink of famine (see, e.g., this, this, or this, at pages 26-28).  That’s why food policy — not nukes,  missiles, or even other human rights issues —  could soon become the most urgent issue in  how the world approaches North  Korea.  It would also be a real opportunity for the U.N. to redeem itself...
Categories "United" Nations/Famine & Food Aid/Human Rights
November 2, 2006

North Korea Wants Its Drug Money Back

[Update:  A senior Korean official suggests that the U.S. will do just that right after the talks resume.  Scroll down.] [Update 2:  The Washington Post post also suspects that North Korea’s announcement is merely an effort to foil the American economic pressure: We hope Assistant Secretary of State Christopher R. Hill, who conducted lengthy talks with his North Korean counterpart in recent days, is justified in expecting “substantial progress” from the new round. But history suggests that both North Korea...
Categories "United" Nations/Counterfeiting/Drugs & N Korea/Famine & Food Aid/Money Laundering/Six-Party Talks
October 30, 2006

Epidemic in North Korea?

Several days ago, a well-informed contact asked me whether I had heard rumors of a new disease spreading rapidly in northeastern North Korea, in the vicinity of Camp 22.  I hadn’t.  The rumor — I emphasize it was unverified and described to me as such — was that this was a made-in-the-lab germ  that had spread from one of the concentration camps in the vicinity to the  population on the outside.  It all sounded a bit conspiratorial to me, until...
Categories Famine & Food Aid/Inside NK
October 29, 2006

U.N. Report on Human Rights in North Korea

Human Rights Without Frontiers forwards this report on human rights in North Korea  from the U.N. General Assembly (north_korea_u1_2006.pdf).  On the surface, it’s slathered with diplo-lard, but wipe that off and you can see some fairly strong language. In addition, it cannot be overstated that the excessive expenditure by the authorities on its defence sector based upon the country’s “military-first” policy causes serious distortions in the national budget and its use of national resources; it is a key impediment to...
Categories "United" Nations/Famine & Food Aid/Human Rights
October 27, 2006

Must Read: International Crisis Group on N. Korean Refugees

It’s probably the most comprehensive and detailed report I’ve yet seen on the subject, and from a non-partisan and balanced group.  The most  immediately relevant  point is that things could soon get much worse: Even without a strong response to the 9 October 2006 nuclear test that targets the North’s economy, the internal situation could soon get much worse. The perfect storm may be brewing for a return to famine in the North. Last year, Pyongyang reintroduced the same public...
Categories Famine & Food Aid/Human Rights/Refugees
October 25, 2006

North Korea Sold Ryongchon Relief Donations

The first clue should have been why they said they needed 50 televisions (background  and photos  of the still-not-quite-unexplained disaster; click the first link and scroll down for a before-and-after gif animation using satellite images).  A North Korean government-sponsored company has reportedly been selling products to North Korean citizens using the nonprofit aid products received from the international community, including South Korea during the Yongchon disaster of April 2004. Members of a North Korean aid organization located in Dandong City,...
Categories Appeasement/Famine & Food Aid
October 24, 2006

More Grim News on N. Korea’s Food Situation

New reports are  predicting that things are looking bleak for North Korea’s food situation this winter. Millions of North Koreans are at risk of starvation this winter as humanitarian aid levels drop amid an international furore over the country’s nuclear bomb test. Aid agencies say much of the population is already surviving on basic rations and fear any further drop in food supplies could lead to a repeat of the 1990s famine that killed as many as two million people....
Categories "United" Nations/China/China & Korea/Famine & Food Aid
October 21, 2006

Fractured Monolith

The quality and quantity of the Daily NK’s reports from inside the North just seem to get better. This week, two new reports fill in gaps in our knowledge about economic and social conditions; both are absolute must-reads. The first is filled with pictures of gritty scenes of daily life in the North. It’s astonishing to see the extent to which the blockade has eroded when pictures like these come out. On this day, the brawl began as 2 young...
Categories Famine & Food Aid/Inside NK/Korean Society
October 19, 2006

Interview: L. Gordon Flake, Executive Director, Mansfield Foundation

Gordon Flake (bio)  is two things that make his opinions interesting and valuable to me.  First, he’s a fluent Korean speaker, and those of us who aren’t are always at some disadvantage to those who do when we are gathering the facts we process into our views.  Second — and Gordon may not agree with this characterization — his views  strike me as classically  liberal. His views are probably more independent and less jaundiced by partisan bias or  ambitions  than...
Categories An Alliance?/Anti-Americanism/Appeasement/Blogs & Blogging/Famine & Food Aid/Google Earth/Human Rights/Korean Politics/Korean Society/Media Criticism/NK Economics/Proliferation/Refugees/U.S. & Korea/Washington Views
October 16, 2006

Alleged Chinese Documents Reveal Depth of N. Korean Refugees’ Suffering

I can’t verify the documents’ authenticity, of course. That’s the natural advantage that comes with being China, North Korea, or any other opaque dictatorship — you can deny anything without having to let anyone search for the truth. Deniability in the narrower sense is always plausible. In the greater sense, it isn’t. This Wall Street Journal report merely adds some detail, and expands some of the parameters, of what we already know. The Border Police document, dated Jan. 10, 2005,...
Categories China/China & Korea/Famine & Food Aid/Human Rights/Refugees
October 10, 2006

U.S. to Propose Arms Embargo on North Korea

I’d proposed it two days before July’s missile tests, because of the rising danger of another preventable famine, but  it now looks as if John Bolton is circulating  this concept  as part of what he’d tried to get from the U.N. after the July missile tests: The United States circulated a draft U.N. resolution late Monday that would condemn North Korea’s nuclear test and impose tough sanctions on the reclusive communist nation for Pyongyang’s “flagrant disregard” of the Security Council’s...
Categories "United" Nations/China/China & Korea/Famine & Food Aid/Money Laundering/NK Economics/WMD
September 21, 2006

John Feffer’s Dubious History of the Great North Korean Famine

John Feffer provides a deeply informed and lucid account of all these matters, full of insight, pointing the way to constructive solutions that are within our grasp.” — Noam Chomsky It’s no simple thing to be a North Korea apologist these days, and that’s never been truer now that any intelligent observer can see that the food situation in the North is getting worse fast. There are several converging reasons for this: expulsion of (most of) the World Food Program,...
Categories Famine & Food Aid/Human Rights
September 20, 2006

Another Public Execution Video

The guerrilla cameras of the North Korean resistance have brought out another video of a public execution. Like the most recent video releases, showing border guards hauling away South Korean food aid and the display of a dissident banner, it’s from South Hamgyeong Province. The Daily NK has stills and audio, although the images, for understandable reasons, are not clear. The headline says the video depicts a woman being executed for stealing corn from another woman’s home. Later on, however,...
Categories Famine & Food Aid/Inside NK/Resistance
September 15, 2006

Inside North Korea

From the invaluable Daily NK come two new reports. One is an account of flood damage from South Pyongan, and it sounds like it’s severe enough that it won’t be repaired anytime soon. They even have pictures, which shows impressive progress in the penetration of the Daily NK’s tentacles into the North Korean interior. According to another report, the North Korean authorities are punishing ordinary citizens for eating foreign food aid. Apparently, it’s considered property of the state. Read it...
Categories Famine & Food Aid/Inside NK