Current Affairs - North Korea Food Aid

The UN have reported that around six million North Koreans have been affected by this crisis and are in urgent need of food aid. US televangelist Franklin Graham has also had talks with North Korea about food aids. Former US president Jimmy Carter has also expressed his concern and even said that South Korea and United States withholding food aid is a violation of human rights as having food to eat is basic human rights. The UN has also called for 430 thousand tonnes of food aid to be send and urged US and South Korea to put aside diplomatic relations to help the people suffering in North Korea. Furthermore, there was also a concern that there would be a repeat of the 1990s famine whereby around a million people starved due to decades-long mismanagement and disasters which brought devastation to the people living in North Korea during that time.

However, on the other hand, the US and South Korea are not so willing in providing food aid to North Korea. Firstly, they say that the figures by the UN are exaggerated. South Korean interlligence estimates that food production was 5.1 million tonnes in 2010, while the total need of North Korea is around 5.3 million tonnes. There isn't a big difference and there should not be a case of famine. There is also a suspicion that North Korea exaggerated the food shortages to seek more food aid and a reason to this was so that they could build a properous society ahead of the century birth of North Korea founder Kim Il Sung. Furthermore, there were also concerns that food production in North Korea are underreported. For example, farmers in North Korea under-report their food production so as to sell more products to earn more money to buy more equipments and other things. So by right, there should be enough food to go around in North Korea. A concern to food aid being send to North Korea is that the food aid would be shipped to North Korea's elite and military, instead of the people who really need it. This might occur as North Korea is somewhat ruled by the military and they might put the military ahead of the citizens and this claim is further supported by the fact that the country had cut spending on food imports by 40 percent but not cut spending on ballistic missile programs or imports of luxury items. This might also be the current situation whereby the government channels most of the food production away from remote and less populated areas to more wealthy and important places, and also to the military. Hence, helping the North Koreans might seem like a waste of resources to South Korea and US. South Korea has said that they would provide food aid only if North Korea apologises for the attacks on a South Korean warship and on island of South Korea. US also worries that giving food aid would be a sign of reward for bad behaviour after stopping providing food aid in 2009 following the expelling of monitors in North Korea.