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US Has Put Food Aid for
North Korea on HoldOfficials Point to Problems in Monitoring,
Deny Link to Rising Nuclear TensionsBy Jay Solomon
Wall Street Journal
May 20, 2005The Bush administration has halted all food-aid shipments to North Korea so far this year and may not provide any through the end of 2005, according to officials at the U.S. Agency for International Development. The sharp curtailment in assistance comes as the dispute between Washington and Pyongyang over nuclear arms has intensified, with U.S. officials voicing concern this month that North Korea may soon test a weapon. Administration officials said there was no link between falling food aid and rising diplomatic tensions, attributing the curbs instead to an inability to monitor how the assistance is being used, as well as new, competing demands from famine-ravaged countries in Africa. They also say it's possible food-aid shipments could be resumed later this year.
"Our policy is to help the North Korean people with humanitarian assistance, regardless of any political dispute," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said in an interview. "We have raised [with the North Koreans] the importance of ensuring that the food is getting through to the people who need it." The U.S. has expressed concern that the food is siphoned off by the North Korean elite and the military, and fails to reach the general population.
Whatever the reasons for the shift, the cut-off could prove destabilizing to North Asia. Already, aid officials worry about a potential return to famine-like conditions the country experienced a decade ago -- a tragedy that could send hundreds of thousands more refugees streaming into China and South Korea. "We're concerned that we could be inching back to a precipice," Richard Ragan, country director for the United Nations World Food Program in North Korea, said in an interview this week. The White House confirmed yesterday that U.S. officials met with North Korean counterparts last Friday in New York in a bid to get Pyongyang to return to talks aimed at resolving the current nuclear crisis. But no firm commitment has come from the North Korean side. "This channel was used to reiterate the message, directly, that the North Koreans need to return to the six-party talks [on ending Pyongyang's nuclear-weapons program] without conditions, so we can pursue a policy of a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula," White House spokesman Trent Duffy said.
During the mid-1990s, an estimated two million North Koreans starved to death in a famine caused by floods, the breakdown of Pyongyang's agricultural system and the drying up of its foreign-exchange reserves. The U.S. stepped in during the late 1990s to become the largest food donor to North Korea. In 1999, USAID delivered nearly 700,000 tons of aid to North Korea through the WFP. And in 2001, USAID delivered a further 350,000 tons of food aid. Since the nuclear dispute broke out in October 2002, however, the Bush administration has significantly reduced the amount of food aid delivered to North Korea. Last year's total was 50,000 tons, which included wheat, maize, beans and vegetable oil. The administration cut off its monthly shipments of 500,000 tons of heavy fuel oil to North Korea in 2002, which hit the country's industry hard and undercut its ability to raise foreign exchange through exports.
The Bush administration's moves raise the question of whether food aid is being used as a weapon to pressure North Korean leader Kim Jong Il over his nuclear-weapons program. U.S. officials have consistently maintained that Washington was keeping a sharp divide between humanitarian and security issues in its dealings with North Korea. But people who have worked extensively with North Korea say Pyongyang certainly won't see it that way. "On face value, it looks like [food is being used as] a weapon," says Joel Wit, a fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington and a senior official in the Clinton administration. He is sure Pyongyang will see the moves as hostile.
Officials at North Korea's mission at the UN declined to comment yesterday, either on the food aid or on the recent nuclear talks. Officials have repeatedly accused the U.S. of trying to topple the current government. The North's official Korean Central News Agency quoted an unidentified government spokesman as saying yesterday that "it is very natural for us to strengthen self-defensive nuclear deterrence to protect our people's dignity and security."
The question of food shipments comes as relief agencies like the WFP are expressing serious concerns about their ability to feed North Korea's 23 million people, many of whom face the prospect of malnutrition due to food scarcity and soaring inflation. Mr. Ragan said his agency could be forced to stop feeding more than half the 6.5 million people it's targeting if significantly more food aid isn't delivered by August.
The WFP works closely with the North Korean government in distributing its food, monitoring the food's transit from key North Korean ports to distribution centers. The WFP currently has access to 161 of North Korea's 203 counties and districts, which covers about 85% of the civilian population. The Rome-based organization has a policy of not providing aid to areas of North Korea which can't be monitored. Still, many at in the U.S. government and aid agencies voice concerns that monitoring of aid inside North Korea is significantly below international standards. The WFP and other agencies, according to USAID, are blocked from making unannounced field visits and need approval five days ahead of trips. Pyongyang has also not provided lists of beneficiary institutions to international donors. In recent years, Oxfam, CARE and Médecins sans Frontières have closed their aid operations in North Korea due to concerns about monitoring.
The WFP said it requires about 500,000 tons of food aid this year to meet its requirements for North Korea. Mr. Ragan said he can't quantify the exact pledges to date, but notes that the agency has received nothing from three of its principal donors, the U.S., South Korea and the European Union. Japan pledged 250,000 tons of food last year but delivered only 125,000 tons due to a dispute with Pyongyang. Tokyo says North Korea has failed to deliver the remains of some Japanese citizens who were kidnapped and died in North Korea.
The South Korean government pledged this week to begin sending 200,000 tons of fertilizer to the North and is expected to pledge 100,000 tons of food, highlighting Seoul's and Washington's differing views on whether to isolate Pyongyang. The EU hasn't delivered anything this year, although individual countries like Italy and Finland have, according to the WFP. Bush administration officials said it remains uncertain whether the U.S. will pledge more food aid to North Korea in 2005, though they noted that all the aid donated last year wasn't pledged until December, so it was still possible. "The administration has made no decision about food-aid contributions for North Korea for 2005," USAID said. "The U.S. bases food-aid contributions on three criteria: demonstrated need, competing needs elsewhere, and humanitarian organizations' ability to access all people in need and to monitor aid distributions," said Andrew Natsios, USAID administrator. "These criteria are applied to every country, including North Korea.”
U.S. policy makers have long worried about their ability to monitor food distribution in North Korea. Indeed, last year, President Bush signed the North Korean Human Rights Act, which requires USAID and the State Department to submit an annual report to Congress describing any efforts to provide humanitarian aid to North Korea . It specifically seeks evidence that international aid is actually reaching vulnerable North Koreans, as many U.S. officials worry Pyongyang's military could be siphoning off much of the food.
Last month, USAID reported to Congress that it held extensive talks with the North Koreans last year, aiming to increase the number of foreign monitors in the country and to boost their ability to hold random inspections and to visit wider portions of the country. "Unfortunately, the North Koreans did not respond favorably to the proposal," the report states. Mr. Ragan says the WFP is in new talks with Pyongyang to develop new safeguards that "could dramatically improve monitoring [of food aid] if implemented." USAID officials say another reason why North Korea has received so much less aid in recent years is the tremendous suffering in Africa. They note, for example, that the number of North Koreans facing acute malnutrition has diminished to 7% of the population from 9% between 2002 and 2004. In areas of Sudan and Ethiopia, by comparison, 20% to 30% of the populations are facing acute malnutrition. The U.S. has donated nearly 600,000 tons of food to Ethiopia so far this year, USAID says, and nearly 240,000 tons to Sudan.
The debate on food comes as Pyongyang continues to move forward with a gradual introduction of market economics began in mid-2002. But the economic reforms are making more North Koreans vulnerable to food shortages and high prices. Mr. Ragan says a North Korean wage averages around 1,250 won per month, while a kilogram (2.2 pounds) of rice costs 600 won. "A person paying half their monthly salary for a kilo of rice isn't sustainable," the WFP's North Korea director said.
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