By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff Reporter
A group of 14 opposition lawmakers urged the government Wednesday to resume sending rice aid to North Korea to help stabilize prices here.
They asked the government to use part of a rice production surplus as aid for North Korean residents fighting famine, and to lessen farmers' worries about falling prices.
They labeled the government's price stabilization plan, which was made public a day ago, as short-sighted and ineffective.
Rep. Lew Seon-ho of the Democratic Party (DP) and 13 other opposition legislators also called on the government to purchase 580,000 tons of rice to help farmers on the verge of bankruptcy.
``Despite good harvests this year, these farmers are in deep trouble because of falling prices which dropped 9.5 percent compared with that of last year,'' the lawmakers said in a statement.
Everybody would win if the government resumes shipments of 400,000 tons of rice to North Korea as an estimated 8.7 million residents there are reportedly starving, the statement said.
The proposal came a day after the governing Grand National Party (GNP) and officials from the agriculture ministry unveiled a set of measures to cope with falling prices caused by the production surplus.
The ministry promised to purchase 2.7 million tons of rice this year, 230,000 tons more than initially planned.
It also plans to give low interest loans to the Federation of Korea Agricultural Cooperatives, or Nonghyup, and private rice processing complexes (RPCs) if they purchase an additional 15 percent or more rice than they did last year.
RPCs are businesses that use an automated system to process raw rice into white rice and then dry, store and pack it.
Opposition lawmakers called the measures a quick fix, saying policymakers didn't consider what's really happening in the industry.
Nonghyup and RPCs are selling rice at below market prices in order to clear out inventories from last year, they said.
``These entities announced plans to purchase rice 20 percent less than last year as they posted 81.6 trillion won of deficit. So it is questionable if the proposal would encourage them to purchase more rice,'' a group spokesman said.
Farmers staged nationwide protests, calling for a price stabilization plan. Falling rice prices have increased their debt and some farmers have gone bankrupt after their main income was reduced.
Since President Lee Myung-bak took office early last year, the government has halted rice shipments to the North.
President Lee called on North Korea to follow steps needed for denuclearization in return for economic assistance, linking incentives to the North's nuclear programs.
Critics say the South's rice shipments to the North have not helped ordinary North Koreans because Pyongyang fed military personnel, not civilians, with the food assistance.
During the governments of former Presidents Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun, South Korea sent an average 400,000 tons of rice to North Korea per year.