N. Korea calls for talks with NGOs

By Kim Young-jin

North Korea has invited a coalition of South Korean non-governmental groups to visit the impoverished state, a civic leader said Tuesday, amid a reportedly deteriorating food situation.

Park Hyun-seok, secretary general of the Korea NGO Council for Cooperation with North Korea (KNCCNK) that comprises more than 50 groups, said coalition representatives were invited to Pyongyang to discuss overall issues from Wednesday to Saturday.

Seoul, which must approve travel to the Stalinist state, denied the request, citing a lack of monitoring.

The invitation comes as the United Nations continues to call on the international community to assist the North.

On Monday, Valerie Amos, the U.N. undersecretary-general for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator said the food situation was deteriorating each year. Amos was in town after visiting the North on a fact-finding trip last year.

Amos’ comments refocused attention on how to assist the North Korean people. While the U.N. estimates a quarter of the population is in dire need of food aid, Seoul and Washington remain reluctant to send large-scale aid.

The South says the food situation does not appear to be worse than in the recent past.

The Lee administration halted massive shipments of North-bound aid in 2008, tying its provision to denuclearization steps. Two provocations by the North prompted it to cut off all assistance.

Washington has yet to announce a decision on food aid, five months after it sent an assessment team to the North, arousing speculation it was linking its provision to progress on denuclearization.

Since then, Seoul, however, has allowed civic groups to provide food including flour and says it secured an effective monitoring system for the provision. The North is widely believed to redirect aid to its military.

Such suspicions may be behind the U.N.’s difficulty in raising funds over the matter. In April, its World Food Program appealed for $218 worth of aid but only managed to secure one-third that amount.

The North has relied heavily on international aid since the late 1990s when it suffered a massive famine that killed an estimated 2 million.

Amos said roughly half of North Korean children are chronically malnourished and most people are surviving on corn and cabbage.

“Six million North Koreans urgently need food aid, but the outside world is not giving enough,” she said.

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