By Kim Se-jeong
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has urged South Korea to resume food aid to impoverished North Korea.
Speaking to journalists Thursday in Washington, D.C., Ban said, “It’s time for the South Korean government to positively consider sending food aid to North Korea.”
On the same day, he met with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Sen. John Kerry and members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
The U.S. is by far the largest donor to the U.N., and the secretary general periodically visits Washington, D.C. for a consultation.
Although two military provocations by North Korea last year further discouraged the South to resume the aid, Ban said, assistance on the humanitarian ground should continue.
Seoul dismissed Ban’s remarks. “Ban’s comment won’t do anything to change our stance. The government will allow non-governmental organizations to send aid to the North, but the government itself will not engage in aids,” an official at the Ministry of Unification told The Korea Times.
Yet, the South’s rigid stance had a few exceptions, one of which was a relief aid sent last summer in the wake of a flooding in North Korea.
Under the late President Kim Dae-jung (1998-2003) and Roh Moo-hyun (2003-2008), aid was one of the main pillars of Seoul’s policy toward North Korea.
Under its Sunshine Policy of engagement, the South Korean government offered the North a lot. According to the Unification Ministry’s statistics, the value of the aid given between 2000 and 2007 amounted to more than $ 1 billion.
The figure dropped significantly under President Lee Myung-bak. Between 2008 and 2010, the amount remained at $79 million.
Ban’s comment came after the World Food Program (WFP) released an assessment report on food situation in North Korea in March.
The report called for 470,000 tons of international food aid to feed a quarter of its 25 million people, who are in urgent need of food.