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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 Mitchell Jareo of Charlotte, NC: Why is it that a country like North Korea can make discussing peace dependent upon receiving food aid, but the U.S. can't make food aid dependent upon discussing peace?
I think that North Korea should turn to China; its own ally, for aid. How much has China helped? Let us not forget that a state of war exists between North Korea and the United States. The U.S. has allies that are in trouble and we should help them first.
I know that people are dying there. But quite frankly people are dying everywhere and the real problem in North Korea is not a lack of food. The problem is a paranoid government that prizes military might more than its own people. North Korea has alienated itself from the world and just like the hermit at the end of the block, sooner or later someone will smell death coming from their house and that is how they will be discovered. The government of North Korea has brought this situation upon themselves. If the people of North Korea agree with their government's policies, then they should starve (and please don't bring up the innocent children). It is up to the people of North Korea to resolve this problem; by revolution, if necessary.
Ted Yamamori of Food for the Hungry responds:
The United States and North Korea are both using food as a bargaining tool in their negotiations. The fact that the isolationist North Korean government is participating in the talks shows how desperate they are.
In a free and democratic society as we have in the United States, it is difficult to understand how people could behave so differently. The strict totalitarian control that the North Korean government maintains over its people does not allow people to steer the direction of the country. People that I spoke with, including civilians, openly advocate loyalty and love of the government and to Kim Jong Il the current leader as well as his deceased father Kim Il Sung. Disloyalty or revolt is not a possibility in their minds.
China has given some food to North Korea, but they should give more. China's trade volume with North Korea has decreased dramatically in the last several years as well. Since the early 1990s and the collapse of its communist government, the Soviet Union or now Russia has not been able to be as generous as it once was to North Korea. Trade between the two countries is down sharply.
Japan recently announced that they are providing $20 million worth of food aid to North Korea. Those two countries are also negotiating on issues involving alleged kidnapping cases that occurred in the 1950s and 60s as well as Japanese women married to North Korean men who are not allowed to return to Japan to visit their aging parents.
Andrew Natsios of World Vision responds:
Humanitarian aid groups are committed to helping save lives in Communist North Korea, regardless of political concerns. World Vision, a worldwide Christian relief and development agency founded 47 years ago to help needy Koreans, believes there is a moral imperative to act here.
Countless children - as well as the sick and the elderly - are being forgotten by those who oppose responding to urgent food needs in North Korea. These opponents argue that the world can force the North Korean government, the government against which 33,651 Americans lost their lives in the Korean War, into sitting down at the negotiating table with South Korea by using food aid as an incentive. While the talks make sense, they should not be linked to famine relief.
Their argument is indefensible - ethically and morally. All famines are complicated by politics; no famine this century has occurred in a democracy. If we take the view that obnoxious governments oppressing their own people don't deserve food for their starving people, then we wouldn't respond to any famine since all of them in this century have occurred in ugly dictatorships.
However, the motives of a country's leaders should be immaterial: We must decide to help starving children and their grandparents because the United States is a good country, not because it believes North Korea is a good country. To do otherwise diminishes America's own moral standing.
During the 1980s when Ethiopia was facing massive starvation, President Ronald Reagan instituted a policy: "A hungry child knows no politics." That famine relief given by the United States government should not be precluded because we find a particular government offensive. This policy was followed in Ethiopia as well as Sudan, Iraq, Angola and elsewhere. Not only were millions of lives saved, but - at least in the cases of Ethiopia and Angola - the stage was set for peace and better relations with the United States.
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