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| THE NORTH KOREAN FAMINE August 26, 1997 |
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Questions asked
in this forum:
How widespread is the famine? What causes the indifference in South Korea? How likely is another war? Shouldn't we defer to South Korea on questions of aid? How do I help? Wouldn't a free market economy end the famine? How accurate are food estimates in North Korea? How much has China helped its ally? What is being done to prevent future famines? Additional Comments...
NewsHour Backgrounders
August 5, 1997:
The NewsHour reports on new talks between North and South Korea brought about by widespread famine in the North.
June 11, 1997:
Margaret Warner discusses the state of North Korea with World Vision Vice President Andrew Natsios.
April 8, 1997:
Two Senators report on the state of the food crisis in North Korea after returning from the region.
February 11, 1997:
The former U.S. ambassador to South Korea discusses the recent labor unrest there and the famine in North Korea.
December 31, 1996
Charles Krause leads a discussion with two experts on recent tensions between North and South Korea.
November 29, 1996
Rep. Bill Richardson (D-NM) brought home an American man who was being held in North Korea.
May 21, 1996
Facing the real possibility of famine, North Korea's government has allowed United Nations relief officials into what are normally closed borders.
OUTSIDE LINKSVisit the Food for the Hungry and the World Vision Web sites for more information on their work on the Korean Peninsula.
A question from R. Caniglia of Springfield, VA: How accurate are crop and food estimates? What are the means of making estimates, what are the variables, how accurate is the raw data, and what are the assumptions made during interpretation? How comfortable are you with the accuracy of estimates?
We hear estimates on these subjects all the time. Significant decisions are based, in part, on them. Yet, even in the U.S., with the excellent data available, our crop estimates are not as accurate as I would desire were I to rely on them for decision-making.
Andrew Natsios of World Vision responds:
For the past three years, WFP and FAO agriculturalists have made assessment visits to North Korea. They look at previous trends and for anomalies and, by measuring and recording amounts of food grown in measured plots, come up with assessments about crops. However, the relief community does not rely solely on crop estimates but looks at pre-famine indicators - as a way of determining whether and when famine exists.
This summer a World Food Program/Food and Agriculture Organization assessment mission concluded that North Korea needs over 800,000 tons of food aid to feed its hungry population this year. WFP is the United Nations agency mandated to combat hunger; it is the largest international food aid organization in the world. And surely it faces one of the most difficult tasks in its work assessing the need in North Korea and monitoring the food assistance that is collected from donor countries like the United States, European Union and South Korea.
Through a series of unannounced visits, inspections and accounting procedures, the WFP monitors can follow food from dockside or by rail from China to the intended population. Distribution plans are detailed down to the county level and target group.
Working any relief operation in a secretive, totalitarian country is a challenge but there are measures that humanitarian agencies have devised to ascertain certain kinds of information such as, Does famine exist? At what state of famine is this country? North Korea evidences all of the indicators that point to serious famine which calls the attention of the family of nations to consider and respond.
Ted Yamamori of Food for the Hungry responds:
The estimates from North Korea are verified by agriculture specialists from the World Food Program who are very familiar with North Korea. Since the estimates are supported by experts for the United Nations I feel comfortable with them.
Additionally, North Korea is not a huge country. When prime farmland is decimated by floods and drought, you know a country is in dire straits. The damage is evidenced by parched land and wilted crops and is obvious even to the untrained eye.
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