The Next Great Famine

Time examines famine in North Korea

Nearly one million people starved to death when a murderous famine gripped North Korea in the 1990s. Now, the most backward, isolated country in the world may be about to see history repeat itself. According to diplomats, United Nations officials and a variety of non-government organizations, North Korea stands yet again on the brink of a major food shortage. “The prospect of hunger related deaths in the next few months is approaching certainty,” says Marcus Noland, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute and co-author of a just released study raising alarms about the prospect of renewed famine. In fact, one Seoul-based NGO, the Research Institute for North Korean Society, asserts that there have already been a handful of people in small, agricultural villages who have died from starvation.

My position has always been that food aid will only prolong the life of the regime and that the only way for change to happen is to allow the people to take matters into their own hands. However, with the prospect of another famine and the North Korean government seemingly not too worried about it, perhaps food aid is an appropriate option.

According to the Washington Post

South Korea’s criticism of North Korea’s human rights record need not prevent its providing food and fertilizer to hungry people in the North ["S. Korean Principles vs. Hunger in North," news story, April 30]. Hunger should know no politics, as President Ronald Reagan declared to justify food aid to Ethiopians starving under a brutal communist regime in the 1980s.

Since Kim Jong Il, out of anger or pride, will not request the aid, South Korea should donate it to the World Food Program for distribution up north. The agency has a long track record of delivering food in North Korea and of monitoring, albeit imperfectly, where it goes.

If concerns persist about diversion to the communist elite and military, South Korea should donate protein biscuits, barley and millet, as recommended by Marcus Noland of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, which will be more likely to reach the poor than will rice, which the elite and the army prefer. And it should direct its aid to areas where there is known hunger, such as the northeast.

South Korea need sacrifice neither humanitarian nor human rights principles in dealing with North Korea.

With the price of rice in record highs, it is more likely foods like barley and millet will reach the poor rather than resold for profit.

Whatever happens, it will be a grim year for the North Korean people. All we can do is make sure it does not happen again.