The Congressional Research Service recently published a report on foreign food aid to North Korea (.pdf format) that is a MUST READ for anyone interested in the dilemmas posed by international assistance to North Korea. Interestingly enough, I learned about it through a report in the Segye Ilbo, which pointed out criticism of South Korean food aid to North Korea — namely, that three-fourths of the aid was handed directly to North Korea rather than going through the WFP, and that direct South Korean and Chinese food aid — which undergoes virtually no monitoring by WFP officials — was undercutting WFP negotiation efforts to improve the transparency of food aid distribution in North Korea. The Segye Ilbo also cited the report as claiming that even with the nuclear issue, South Korea has not decreased its food aid to the North, and that without cooperation from Seoul, any massive cuts in U.S. food aid to the country would be ineffective.
Anyway, read the report on your own.
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That’s interesting. I’ve read somewhere that one trick is to take bages of rice, etc. from the US of A and put the stuff into bags that aren’t marked with their country of origin. Wouldn’t want people to know that their sustenance is thanks to the North’s arch-enemy.
Marmot, just out of curiosity, where is Segye Ilbo on the political spectrum? I know the Chosun is conservative and Hankyore is left-wing; where does the Segye fit in?
I have heard that the US flag has become roadside trash in NK because it is put on all the bags of food that the US sends and is then discarded along the roadside. I do not know if it is because the food is moved into more non-descript bags or if the food is divided up and distributed along the road ending the lifespan of the bag.
Do they change out the goods to bags w/out US markings or leave it be so they can claim that it’s tribute being paid by the US to the “we are no onger a puny country” NORKS?
My information from reliable sources says that the US stamped sacks, such as rice bags, get used and re-used, and can be found in general use in many public markets long after their original contents have been used. Thus a photo of a US Aid sack in a public market is not necessarily proof that the original contents have been illegally diverted for sale. Apparently, the reuse of such sacks is quite common in all aid receiving countries. I’ll have to ask about discarding them along the roadside, as I’ve not heard that mentioned before.
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