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(LEAD) (News Focus) N.K. faces food crisis amid soured ties with Seoul
By Shim Sun-ah
SEOUL, April 18 (Yonhap) -- Hungry North Koreans face the worst food shortage in years at a time when the North's worsening relations with South Korea are reducing the chances of the North acquiring aid.
The World Food Program (WFP) warned Wednesday that North Korea will need massive food aid in the coming months to avert widespread hunger caused by severe floods and soured diplomacy.
North Korean market prices for staple foodstuffs have doubled in the past year while state rations are dwindling, the U.N. agency said.
"The food security situation in the (North) is clearly bad and getting worse," Tony Banbury, WFP's Asia regional director, was quoted by the Associated Press as saying. "It is increasingly likely that external assistance will be urgently required to avert a serious tragedy," he said.
Jean-Pierre de Margerie, WFP's country director in North Korea, said North Korean officials were admitting for the first time that the state ration system was breaking down.
On the same day, a Seoul-based aid group said it has recieved reports that the second worst food crisis has already begun all across North Korea except for the capital Pyongyang. "There were not yet reported deaths from hunger. But things will go beyond control if no countermeasure is taken by the end of April," the Good Friends said in its weekly newsletter.
The group earlier claimed food rations were even halted in the capital Pyongyang for six months beginning in April and rumors are circulating that the nation may see massive deaths from hunger in May. North Korea has depended on international handouts to feed a large number of its 23 million people since the late 1990s when about 3 million residents, mostly children and women, reportedly starved to death.
The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization estimated last month that North Korea would be short of about 1.7 million tons of grain until this year's fall harvest season.
To make things worse, South Korea, under the conservative government of President Lee Myung-bak, has no immediate plan to send humanitarian aid. Even if it had any, the soaring cost of international food and fertilizer would make it impossible to send as much aid as it has sent in the past, according to government officials. The previous two liberal governments have shipped annually about 400,000 tons of rice and 300,000 tons of fertilizer to the impoverished nation as part of a broad plan to prepare for the reunification of the Korean Peninsula.
Lee reaffirmed during his visit to Washington on Thursday that his government will link further inter-Korean economic cooperation to North Korea's nuclear disarmament, but added his government will continue to provide humanitarian aid.
"The food shortage crisis facing the North Korean people should be approached from a humanitarian perspective," he said in an interview with The Washington Post.
The president previously vowed to provide food aid if North Korea asks for help but suggested Pyongyang has to take reciprocal measures -- such as improving the North's human rights record and returning kidnapped South Korean citizens as well as prisoners taken during the 1950-53 Korean War. Lee also pledged to help North Korea improve its economy if it gives up its nuclear arms ambitions. These statements have triggered angry reactions from Pyongyang.
North Korea expelled South Korean officials from the joint industrial complex and a tourist resort near the inter-Korean border and threatened to turn Seoul into "ashes" to push Lee back to the previous government's engagement policy.
"We remain unchanged with our position to send basic humanitarian aid to North Korea," said Kim Jeong-su, chief of the Unification Ministry's Humanitarian Cooperation Bureau. "But we have to consider North Korea's attitude, the development of international diplomacy and public opinion before deciding the amount of aid," he said.
Seoul earmarked 197.3 billion won (US$199 million) from a government-civilian fund for inter-Korean cooperation for this year's humanitarian aid, according to the ministry. "But we remain unsure as to whether we will be able to provide as much aid as they expect due to the recent rise in international grain prices," Kim said.
The situation is worse with fertilizer. International fertilizer prices have jumped four times in the past year. Industrial sources say South Korea has not reserved fertilizer for aid to North Korea this year as more and more local fertilizer manufacturers want to export most of their products.
The North Korean government has made no request for aid as inter-Korean ties turned sour after the launch of the new Seoul government. According to an intelligence report, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il instructed Pyongyang officials not to expect humanitarian aid from Seoul this year. Other sources said the North has already contacted other countries for massive food aid.
The United States is expected to soon take steps to remove North Korea from its list of terrorism-supporting countries, lift a trade ban against the North and send 500,000 tons of rice through the WFP when the North completes the second phase of denuclearization -- disabling its key nuclear facilities and disclosing all its nuclear programs.
The Seoul government appears to believe Pyongyang will have no choice but to eventually seek aid from the South because it would take time for the communist state to get promised economic and political rewards in return for finishing phase two of an October six-party denuclearization agreement.
Some civic activists say Seoul should provide aid, even if there is no request, to prevent an "imminent food crisis" in the North. However, some experts disagree.
Kwon Tae-jin, an expert on the North's agricultural sector at the South's Korea Rural Economic Institute, said Seoul needs to respect a key principle of the U.N.'s humanitarian aid. That principle is that aid should be given when there is a request and consent from a country in need.
"The government may be able to provide aid through an aid group so it can thoroughly monitor distribution," Kwon said.
Suh Jae-jean, a senior fellow at the state-invested Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul, said the government appears to be waiting for a good time to resume a dialogue as public opinion remained largely negative about helping the nuclear-armed neighbor.
"The government may offer a dialogue to discuss aid and other pending issues when the South Korea-U.S. summit is over," Suh said.
Over the weekend, Lee is scheduled to discuss ways to strengthen the alliance with Washington during a two-day summit with U.S. President George W. Bush at the Camp David presidential retreat in mountains north of Washington.
sshim@yna.co.kr
(END)
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