Food Crisis—North Korea
It has been reported that more than 3 million people out of 23 million have died from hunger in North Korea since 1995, the first of two consecutive years during which North Korea suffered floods. The flooding was followed by a serious drought, and the nation was hit by tidal waves in 1997. The succession of misfortunes brought about widespread famine. There have been reports of people surviving by eating the bark of pine trees and grass roots, or by selling items like clothing and furniture to buy food. The condition of the children has been compared to that of the children of Ethiopia during the famines of the mid-1980s. The World Food Program (WFP) continued through 2001 to warn that without food grain aid from outside, the most vulnerable people were still in danger of starvation.
Since North Korean authorities have provided no reliable data on demographics or the nation's criteria for food rationing, it is difficult to evaluate the food situation in North Korea. According to a report of the North Korean Flood Damage Rehabilitation Committee in March 1998, annual demand for food grain was shown to be as much as 7 million metric tons, while actual production in 1997 was 2.3 million metric tons. However, the Ministry of Unification in South Korea estimates that the north's total demand for grain is 5.5 million metric tons, while grain output was 3.9 million metric tons in 2001. According to these figures, a shortage of 1.6 million metric tons remains. An assessment by the WFP and other U.N. food assistance groups puts North Korea's annual grain demand at 4.8 million metric tons, with 2.9 million metric tons of grain harvested, also leaving a shortage of 1.9 million metric tons in 2000. However, this shortage should be eased by food assistance from the U.N., grain secured through the North Korea's bartering activities, and Chinese relief efforts. While it is hard to judge the accuracy of these figures, the general view is that North Korea suffers a food shortage of 2 million metric tons of grain annually.
Causes of the Food Shortage
The food shortage in North Korea has continued unabated because of the structural deficiencies of its socialist economy, combined with natural disasters and the disappearance of entire markets within the international socialist bloc. North Korea's cooperative farm system reduced farmers' incentive to work and dampened their productivity. Further, the cutting off of North Korea's oil supply, which had been provided largely by the former Soviet Union; a sharp drop in foreign trade; and the collapse of socialist countries, particularly the former Soviet Union, dealt a heavy blow to all sectors of the North Korean economy. Moreover, the government's expansion of farmland to hillside regions through bench-terraced farming was a major factor in the destruction of forestland, which increased the destructive force of the floods. The country's inadequate transportation system also compounded its deepening food crisis by making it difficult to ship food to where it was needed.
As the food crisis has worsened, the North Korean government has tried to minimize its responsibility to supply food grain through the central distribution system. It launched a national campaign, the "Arduous March" (1996–1997), in order to overcome the worsening food crisis. Grain rationing by the central government was curtailed to the minimum level, leaving local authorities and institutions to make up the bulk of the shortage. Although there are regional variations in food shortage due to the regional self-supply system, food grain rationing by the central government was reduced to 300 grams (half a bowl) per day in most areas of North Korea, except the capital city Pyongyang.
It is not easy to confirm how many people starved to death during the "Arduous March" campaign. Based on interviews with 1,694 North Korean "food refugees" in northeast China, the Buddhist Chapter of the Movement for Mutual Help of Our Nation estimated that 3 million people (27 percent of the entire population of North Korea) died from hunger between August 1995 and March 1998. Before he defected to South Korea, Hwang Jang Yup, the former secretary of international affairs of the North Korean Worker's Party, claimed to have heard from a reliable source that 1.5 million people had starved to death by the end of 1996. The Council on Foreign Relations of the U.S. Congress estimates that the total number of deaths from starvation to date ranges from 1 million to 2 million.
In addition to those who have lost their lives due to food shortages, many people are suffering from malnutrition and a lack of adequate health care. According to a World Vision report of July 1997, out of 547 North Korean children of two years and under in five nursery schools in the cities of P'yongyang, Wonsan, Sariwon, Haeju, and P'yongsan, 85 percent were malnourished and 29 percent were severely malnourished. Although it is hard to forecast how the food crisis is going to be resolved in the near future, there seems no way out without a fundamental reformation of the sluggish economy.
Further Reading
Choi, Sooyoung. (1996) A Study on Agricultural Policy and Food Problems in North Korea. Seoul: Korea Institute for National Unification.
Kim, Byounglo Philo. (1999) "The Sociopolitical Impact of Food Crisis in North Korea." Korea and World Affairs 23, 2 (Summer): 207–224.
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