NKs Food Shortage Is Temporary Phenomenon
By Kim Se-jeong
Staff Reporter
Vietnamese Ambassador Tien Van Pham said North Korea's food crisis is a temporary phenomenon.
Talking about Vietnam's humanitarian aid policy toward North Korea, a country with the majority of the population living below poverty line, the ambassador said, "I think the North Korean food shortage is temporary, and can be solved."
As to how, he didn't elaborate much, except saying that Vietnam was once an importer of rice, but now is an exporter.
His message came on the backdrop of a news report that the Vietnamese government announced it was extending a helping hand to its longstanding ally if requested.
The news report came right after North Korea's missile launch in early April. The Yonhap News Agency reported it, quoting a Vietnamese Foreign Ministry official.
The ambassador dismissed the report, saying his country isn't in good enough of shape to help North Korea.
"We have our own poverty issue to resolve within Vietnam," Pham said. "If the North requests the aid, we could consider, but can't guarantee anything."
Vietnam has a record of sending rice to its nearly 60-year ally. For the first time in 1996, the Vietnamese government sent thousands of tons of rice to North Korea. As recent as last year, when Nong Duc Mahn, secretary general of Vietnam's Community Party, visited North Korea, "a couple of thousand tons" of rice accompanied him.
Ambassador Pham explained, "In 1996, we gave rice on the promise of getting paid back in the future." And the secretary general presented the rice as a small gift, considering the food shortage. "It wasn't much anyway."
He projected it was unlikely that Vietnam would come up with a written-out aid policy toward North Korea.
"We sympathize with starving North Koreans, and wish to be able to help," he said, yet it can't be the priority.
Vietnam is the second largest rice producer and exporter in the world.
The World Food Organization categorized North Korea as being in need of imported rice to feed its people.
Asked whether Vietnam takes North Korea as an ally, with which it shares ideological values, the envoy said, "Ideology no longer plays a big role as it used to," hinting that Vietnam's focus has shifted more toward economic relations than politics.
But, even the economic side of the relationship with North Korea isn't so bright.
The time when Vietnam and North Korea perceived each other as active trade and investment partners has passed, he said. Starting in the 1990s, trade and investment between the two countries began to diminish gradually reaching zero.
As of now, there is no trade or investment, he said.
The decrease wasn't owing to the fact that Vietnam decided to open diplomatic relations with South Korea, he insisted. It was 1992 when Vietnam and South Korea established diplomatic ties, coinciding with the point where Vietnam-North Korea relations started to slacken.
Between Hungary and North Korea, Hungary's decision to open up to South Korea in 1988 had to face the rage of the North. It expelled the Hungarian ambassador from Pyongyang.
"That must not be a factor," Ambassador Pham said. By 1992, it was almost like "a trend" that two countries of former enemies per se came to sign a diplomatic accord.
Rather, it was a natural consequence for two countries, which had run different economic mechanisms, he explained.
He said the two governments still meet to discuss ways to better economic exchange. But it can hardly come anywhere close to figures between Vietnam and South Korea.
As of last year, trade between South Korea and Vietnam surpassed $10 billion. In terms of investment, Korea is one of the top five investing countries in Vietnam.
"North Korea has natural resources," which Vietnam looks into, he said.
The ambassador himself is a North Korean expert. Having studied and worked in Pyongyang for nearly 15 years, he maintains a good command of the Korean language.
His posting in South Korea appears to be a long one, as his first term has just been renewed. He was posted as ambassador in 2005.