Strings attached to aid for North Korea

By Kang Hyun-kyung

The Ministry of Unification said Sunday that government-led food aid to North Korea, such as 400,000 tons of rice, is more than the humanitarian support that’s possible without conditions.

It will be inevitable for the South to attach strings, like an improvement in inter-Korean relations to such massive humanitarian assistance, Lee Jong-joo, spokeswoman at the ministry, told The Korea Times. “To resume food aid to North Korea, we will want to see positive outcomes in South-North relations,” she stressed.

Seoul and Pyongyang failed to set a schedule for high-level military talks at the preparatory meeting held last week. The two sides blamed each other for the failed talks. North Korea has stepped up hostile rhetoric against the South since then.

Due to the short-lived conciliatory atmosphere, Seoul has shown no signs of resuming aid to the North.

South Korea’s tying food aid to inter-Korean relations is in contrast with the United States’ position on humanitarian assistance to the Stalinist state.

In a recent interview with Yonhap, Robert King, the U.S. State Department’s special envoy for North Korean human rights issues, made it clear that no strings were attached to its humanitarian assistance to foreign nations. “The United States policy is that when we provide assistance, humanitarian assistance, it is based on need and no political consideration should be involved. That’s the first condition,” King said.

Some analysts warned Washington’s possible resumption of food aid to the North will end up limiting the options Seoul has to put pressure on Pyongyang to halt its nuclear program.

But professor Yoo Ho-yeol of Korea University played down the possibility that the differences in principles for food aid will lead to different paths for Seoul and Washington.

The North Korea watcher told The Korea Times over the phone that he was optimistic about policy coordination between the two countries.

Yoo speculated that Washington will listen to Seoul’s position on food aid to Pyongyang when it makes a final decision on the resumption of humanitarian assistance.

“Back in 2008, there was an awkward moment between the two as Washington vowed to send 500,000 tons of crop produce to the North. But since then, the two sides have worked closely together in policy coordination,” Yoo said. “I think that the United States will end up agreeing on the need for improvement in South-North relations to resume food aid to the North.”

Earlier, U.S. officials said that Washington was looking closely at the humanitarian situation in the North, but had no plans to resume food aid at this time.

Despite this, the international community’s soul-searching for ways to feed North Korean population continued.

Upon a request from North Korea, the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) embarked on a survey of food security and crop production in the North from last Thursday, dispatching a team of experts.

Experts from the World Food Program (WFP) joined the field trip. The joint survey will continue until early March.

North Korea has reportedly allowed the joint FAO/WFP team experts to visit the 30 cities in Jakang and North Gangwon Province where an array of military installations are located.

Previously, North Korean authorities didn’t allow the staff to conduct surveys there, fearing the exposure of military secrets to the outside world.

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