• Donate aid to humanitarian relief

• Reports on food supply situation and aid relief

• UN/NGO vacancies in DPRK
  Ongoing vacancies noticeboard from Reliefweb

• Photographs and maps

NZ-DPRK Society
The Society organises support for the NZ Friendship Farm –Haksan- outside Pyongyang and the NZ Friendship School in Pyongyang.
The Society’s aid activities are coordinated by Rev Stuart Vogel
Stuart is always happy to receive donations. Recent activities of the Society:

• Truck donated to NZ Friendship Farm
  An update from Peter Wilson
• Small Tractor for the New Zealand Friendship Farm
  
• Teaching, and learning, in Pyongyang
  Tim Kearns is a primary school teacher from Christchurch who recently spent three months teaching in Pyongyang. It was an interesting and worthwhile experience, as he recounts, with many surprises.

Other aid agencies and initiatives

• Support page of World Food Programme
• Addresses in NZ for donations
• Appeal from Koryo Tours
  Donations Clients often ask how they can make a donation to benefit people in DPRK and we are pleased to announce that from this year we will be working with a very worthwhile UK charity called Love North Korean Children
  Love North Korean Children - Their Mission:
  •to provide training and employment for DPRK nationals and care for their well-being
  •to build bakeries in 26 major cities in the DPRK and, wherever possible, run an orphanage alongside to enable additional and extensive care for the children
  •to manage the bakeries and orphanages with an aim to becoming financially self-sufficient over several years
  •to help people in North Korea who are in need of food, medicine and clothing
• Love North Korean children
  A charity project for children of Manna Mission of Europe Limited
  Manna Mission of Europe – founded in 2004 – is a U.K. registered charity organization. The main purpose is to help impoverished children, often orphans, in the Najin-Sonbong area and other places (in Pyongyang and far away from the capital). The project Love North Korean Children (LNKC) even started in 2001

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• AFSC welcomes new legislation to improve humanitarian access to North Korea
  Amid COVID-19 pandemic Rep. Andy Levin and Senator Markey announce bill to allow better humanitarian aid delivery Apr 13, 2020 Photo: / AFSC WASHINGTON, DC (April 13, 2020): Representative Andy Levin and Senator Markey announced a new bill today that would help with the delivery of humanitarian aid to the people of North Korea. The announcement comes at an important time as aid groups prepare urgent shipments amid the pandemic. The text of the bill addresses key challenges to aid delivery including clarifying regulations for humanitarian groups and streamlining approval processes. “If passed by Congress, this bill would address some of the most challenging obstacles humanitarian organizations face in carrying out aid deliver to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK or North Korea),” said Daniel Jasper, Public Education and Advocacy Coordinator for the American Friends Service Committee in Asia. The American Friends Service Committee has been engaged in relief efforts on the Korean Peninsula since the years after the Korean War. AFSC’s North Korea program is currently working with cooperative farms to raise productivity and implement sustainable agricultural practices in the region. The bill spells out in greater detail existing exemptions for humanitarian organizations. Aid groups have reported in recent years that more complex sanctions regimes have had unintended consequences for aid workers. Complicated approval procedures at multiple government and intergovernmental bodies have slowed the delivery of humanitarian assistance – sometimes with life-threatening consequences. The DPRK closed its borders shortly after the discovery of COVID-19. Officially, the DPRK still reports no cases of the disease. However, many experts worry that needs are mounting in the country as normal humanitarian supply chains have been completely shut down since the end of January. “This bill comes at a crucial time. When the COVID-19 situation subsides and borders open again, humanitarian groups will need immediate access. We simply won’t have time for approval procedures that can last nine months or more,” said Linda Lewis, DPRK Country Director for the American Friends Service Committee. ### The American Friends Service Committee is a Quaker organization that includes people of various faiths who are committed to social justice, peace and humanitarian service. Its work is based on the belief in the worth of every person and faith in the power of love to overcome violence and injustice. [Coronavirus] [Quakers] [Sanctions]
• Christian Friends of Korea April Newsletter
  Dear Friends: Just as a hurricane starts small off shore but grows quickly to a monstrous and extremely dangerous storm that levels everything in its destructive path, so we have watched painfully as a small outbreak of a new virus in one corner of the world has now spread to every continent except Antarctica, leaving suffering, death, fear, utter disruption and economic chaos in its wake. We are all yet in the midst of this unprecedented storm, and we don’t know how long it will last, who it will spare, or what will be left when it is finally spent. We got our first inklings of what was coming with the abrupt closure of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) border in late January in response to the Covid-19 outbreak in neighboring China. Quickly thereafter, flights to/ from China and Pyongyang were suspended. Accordingly, our usual travel and shipping activities have entered a period of uncertainty. While official approval was received from the DPRK in early February for our 2020 travel plan, emergency border closure measures intended to protect the DPRK people from infection have forced us to postpone our planned March 2020 trip indefinitely. It is unclear when the border will reopen, or even when regular international flights will resume between the US and China, and between China and the DPRK. Meanwhile, inside DPRK, UN agency and diplomatic staff were locked down on quarantine for more than 30 days, only to be finally released on March 2, with many leaving the country on one evacuation flight on March 9. We are also facing shipping challenges. In early February, the usual feeder vessels that transport humanitarian containers between Dalian (China), and Nampo (DPRK) abruptly suspended cargo deliveries as a result of new North Korean quarantine measures. Several of our shipments were already enroute, and by latter March, three sea containers from CFK had arrived in Dalian. They now await further transport to Nampo (ours are among more than 1,500 others arriving since the suspension of transit services). While our containers wait for delivery to Nampo, we will be charged additional storage and container leasing fees. Included in these containers are renovation materials, lab and medical equipment, soap and food supplies for our TB and hepatitis hospitals and rest homes. It is yet unclear when the regular transport of goods between China and DPRK may resume. Please pray that these containers can be delivered to the DPRK without further delay. [Coronavirus]

• Pyongyang accepts US$ 41.74 million in humanitarian aid
  The country’s TB medication inventory will not run out in June 2020. The Eugene Bell Foundation will be the only provider of multidrug-resistant medication. Treatment may soon be available to all North Koreans who need it. Seoul (AsiaNews) – After lengthy consultations, the North Korean government has reached an agreement with the Global Fund to combat AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria (Global Fund) on a US$ 41.74 million funding grant. “The successful conclusion of these negotiations may have averted a crisis, as there is no longer a threat that North Korea will exhaust its inventory of regular TB medications in June of 2020 as was feared when the previous grant was terminated in 2018,” the Eugene Bell Foundation (EBF) announced today in a press release. The US-based Christian charity is involved in medical and humanitarian assistance that benefits thousands of TB patients in rural North Korea. The three-year agreement between North Korea, the Global Fund and implementing partners of will last until 30 September 2022. Thanks to its work over the years and the trust the authorities place in it, EBF will be the sole provider of assistance for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB), whilst United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) will be responsible for providing assistance for malaria and drug-susceptible tuberculosis (regular TB). [Aid] [Eugene Bell] [TB]

• Choson Exchange at the World Economic Forum GFC
  November 8, 2019 At the World Economic Forum Global Future Council on the Korean Peninsula At the World Economic Forum Global Future Council on the Korean Peninsula On Nov 3-4, Choson Exchange was represented at the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council for the Korean Peninsula in Dubai by Geoffrey. The World Economic Forum’s GFCs are working groups organized by the World Economic Forum to discuss pressing global issues, define an agenda on those issues, and to drive action towards improving the state of the world. The Council Members for the GFC can be found here. The Council is co-chaired by Angela Kane, former under-secretary of the United Nations and Moon Chung In, Special Advisor to the President of the Republic of Korea for National Security, Foreign Affairs and Unification.
• Global Fund resumes funding to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
  6 Oct 2019 Author: David Garmaise Board approves a consolidated TB and malaria grant worth $42 million, from the 2017-2019 allocations When the Global Fund terminated its grants to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), also known as North Korea, on 21 February 2018, the Fund said, “We remain committed to supporting the health of the people in DPRK, and hope to re-engage when possible.” Eighteen months later, the Global Fund has decided that the time has come to re-engage. On 13 September 2019, the Board approved by electronic vote a consolidated TB and malaria grant to the DPRK in the amount of $41.7 million. The funds are part of the 2017-2019 allocations. [TB][Contagion across borders]
  • Global Fund terminates its grants to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
    20 Mar 2018 Author: David Garmaise New TB and malaria grants for 2017–2019 will not be awarded The Global Fund has closed its TB and malaria grants to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK, a.k.a North Korea). In a short announcement dated 21 February 2018 on the DPRK country page on its website, the Global Fund said that it had established robust arrangements to monitor and supervise the grants, including a strict zero-cash-advance policy and detailed records on the delivery of medicine and health supplies. “However,” the Fund said, “despite additional safeguards, we remain concerned that the unique operating environment in the DPRK prevents us from being able to provide the Board with the required level of assurance and risk management around the deployment of resources and the effectiveness of the grants. We remain committed to supporting the health of the people in DPRK, and hope to re-engage when possible.” [Aid weapon] [UNUS] [Diversion] [Pretext] [Sanctions]

• North Korea 'facing poor harvest' amid food shortages
  9 November 2019 Image caption North Korea has suffered a series of weather disasters North Korea's harvest is predicted to be worse than usual, exacerbating already severe food shortages in the country, a monitoring group says. Using satellite images, Swiss-based Geoglam said drought had affected crops in an area known as the "cereal bowl". The UN says four in 10 North Koreans need food aid and crop production is at its lowest level in five years. Shortages are made worse by international sanctions on North Korea over its weapons programme. In May food rations - which feed about 70% of the North Korean population - were cut from 550g (19.5 oz) to just 300g per person following poor results in this year's early harvest. [Food situation] [Sanctions effect]
• In North Korea, even charity is challenging
  While Pyongyang rejects Seoul’s food for the malnourished, other donors disburse aid under the radar By Andrew Salmon How do you help those who will not help themselves? This is the conundrum – albeit, on a national, rather than a personal level – facing free and prosperous South Korea as it seeks to assist unfree and poverty-wracked North Korea. Clearly, it is an agonizing task. An official from Seoul’s Ministry of Unification, who briefed foreign correspondents on Wednesday on his ministry’s humanitarian and human rights efforts, made clear the frustrations facing his ministry as it seeks to dispense food aid to vulnerable populations in North Korea Given the stone wall Seoul is facing as it seeks to assist the populace of a state whose government is focused on politics rather than humanitarianism, a non-governmental organization told Asia Times that experience has taught it to bypass official channels when dealing with Pyongyang. Rejects food There may be no two neighboring countries on earth divided by such stark economic disparity. North Korea’s poverty has had a dire impact on vulnerable populations: According to South Korean Unification Ministry data, North Korea’s infant mortality rate is five times higher than the South’s while material mortality is seven times higher. [Sanctions effect] [Aid weapon]

• Christian Friends of Korea Newsletter Fall 2019
  ENDURANCE AND HOPE: A LETTER FROM HEIDI FALL 2019 We are preparing to head back to DPRK this Fall – but we are to go later than what we had initially expected. Before we left DPRK in June, we had discussed and agreed with our counterparts to return in late August with a renovation team and clinical team, and also distribute 3,500 water filter buckets that had arrived earlier this year. But in early July, we received a message asking us to change our visiting dates significantly, and after a lot of back and forth with our international team members and the DPRK side, we received approval to visit from September 27 – October 16. We are now planning to do the above scope of work according to this revised schedule. Due to the schedule change however, we have lost some team members from the delegation who understandably could not accommodate the revised dates in their long-set schedules. (Once we have submitted the initial application - sent in June - it is not possible to add any new participants.) We hope to return in November for our final confirming visit for the year, but that is not confirmed yet.

• Int'l Red Cross providing emergency aid to typhoon-hit N. Korea
  All Headlines 08:31 September 10, 2019 SEOUL, Sept. 10 (Yonhap) -- The international Red Cross said it is providing emergency aid to North Korea, which is struggling to recover from damage caused by Typhoon Lingling over the weekend. In a tweet posted Monday, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said its teams are currently "assessing damages and needs" in North Korean villages and distributing "tarpaulins, quilts, shelter tools, hygiene kits and kitchen supplies to affected families." The IFRC earlier set aside 56,000 Swiss francs (US$56,160) for emergency aid to be provided to the North. On Sunday, the North's state media reported that Typhoon Lingling left five people dead and three others injured. It also said that its accompanying strong winds and rains caused losses of crops and damaged hundreds of homes, adding that nationwide recovery efforts are currently under way. This undated photo, released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency on Sept. 9, 2019, shows farmers picking up fallen rice at a paddy after the powerful Typhoon Lingling passed through the Korean Peninsula on Sept. 7. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap) [Typhoon] [Aid]

• Christian Friends of Korea Newsletter August 2019
  Prayer Concerns for CFK and the DPRK Prayer Calendar Thank you for your faithful prayers! "But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him." Jeremiah 17:7 (NIV) Please join us in giving thanks to God for: A new BIS (Commerce export license) allowing us to send equipment needed for the HOPE program. Safe arrival of a new hepatitis B and C medicine shipment to DPRK. A new domestic banking relationship. Recent arrival of 6 container shipments so far for this year including food, water filter sets, blankets and hygiene kits, relief kits and renovation supplies. Government officials and partners willing to go the extra mile. Many people who are faithfully praying for the peoples of Korea, and working to help. Please join with us in praying for the following concerns: Click here for the August prayer calendar and visit our website to read the August Calendar story! [Aid]

• S. Korea, WFP Seeking US Sanctions Exemptions to Send Rice to N. Korea
  Write: 2019-07-18 15:29:16 / Update: 2019-07-18 15:30:50 S. Korea, WFP Seeking US Sanctions Exemptions to Send Rice to N. Korea Photo : KBS News Discussions are currently underway with the U.S. to get sanctions exemptions for South Korean food aid to North Korea. A government source said Thursday that South Korea and the World Food Program(WFP) are seeking the exemptions for ships and other equipment to deliver 50-thousand tons of South Korean-produced rice amid severe food shortages in the North. The United Nations agency, which will handle the delivery, is reportedly considering directly transporting the aid from the South to the North to save costs and time. In 2017, the U.S. imposed additional sanctions on Pyongyang under which any airplane or ship making a trip to the country is banned from entering American territory for 180 days. South Korea and the WFP signed an official contract regarding the food aid on July eleventh. [Aid] [Sanctions] [US dominance]

• Christian Friends of Korea
  July 2019 Newsletter
• Seoul to Donate Rice to N.Korea Despite Snub
  By Kim Myong-song June 20, 2019 12:49 The Unification Ministry on Wednesday insisted it will donate 50,000 tons of rice to North Korea through an international agency. The decision comes even though Pyongyang has turned up its nose at the offer and it is unclear whether there is an urgent need for it. The delivery by ship is going to cost more than W127 billion, which will be covered by South Korea (US$1=W1,176). Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul said, "After close consultations with the World Food Programme, the government decided to deliver 50,000 tons of domestically grown rice to the North in consideration of the food situation there." North Korea has complained of a food shortage to the UN while simultaneously boasting of how well-stocked its malls are, and the price of rice in North Korean markets has actually fallen. But Kim said, "We'll decide on the timing and scale of additional food aid to the North later based on the outcome of the shipment." Seoul has been trying to use the donation as a carrot to bring North Korea back to the negotiating table since the second U.S.-North Korea summit in Hanoi in February collapsed. But there has been no response from the North. Kim claimed there have been "a kind of trilateral talks" between Seoul and the WFP and the WFP and Pyongyang to figure out how to deliver the aid and North Korea's willingness to accept it. The ministry is taking the precaution of sending polished rice instead of threshed rice that can be stored for a long time so the regime cannot stockpile it to save money for its arms program or for the military. The sacks will bear the inscription "Republic of Korea" to make it more obvious to outside observers if the rice is being misappropriated. Some W27 billion will come from the Inter-Korean Cooperation Fund and about W100 billion from a special account held by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. The amount is more than double the W60.8 billion the ministry allocated in the budget last year for food aid from the Inter-Korean Cooperation Fund. [SK NK aid] [Conservatives]
• This top Irish charity is working in North Korea... and it has been for 19 years
  'People are stunted because they don’t get enough nutrition as children. The physical work that they do every day is enormous' Cathal McMahon September 30 2017 1:24 PM An Irish charity worker has spoken of her fears that the current international crisis surrounding North Korea could lead to further food and fuel shortages in the region. Concern Worldwide is one of only six international aid agencies working in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), also known as North Korea, and it has been there for almost 20 years. Their work in food production and water provision is helping over 60,000 people every year. However this is now being put in jeopardy as tensions continue to mount between US President Donald Trump and North Korea’s leader Kim Jung Un. Read More: North Korea 'bolsters defences' on coast after U.S. bombers' show of force at weekend Bríd Kennedy, regional director with responsibility for the DPRK, explained that she has visited the country eight times in the last decade.
  “In recent times as more and more sanctions are applied the access to fuel is getting more difficult. Fuel is now very expensive in the region. “That is fuel for transport and cooking. It is a country with extreme temperatures and as we approach winter that fuel is crucial for heating homes. Ms Kennedy said she hoped that "calm rhetoric" would prevail and that the charity would be able to continue their good work in the region. [NGO] [Ireland] [Malnutrition] [Sanctions effect] [Agency]
• S.Korea approves 8 mln USD donation to int'l organizations for food aid to DPRK
  Source: Xinhua| 2019-06-05 15:35:20|Editor: xuxin SEOUL, June 5 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's unification ministry said Wednesday that a plan was approved to donate eight million U.S. dollars to two international organizations for food aid to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). The ministry's panel to promote the inter-Korean exchange and cooperation, comprised of government officials and civilian experts, endorsed the plan to provide 4.5 million U.S. dollars to the World Food Program (WFP) and 3.5 million U.S. dollars to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) each, the ministry said in a statement. Through the two organizations, the donation would be used for the humanitarian food aid to babies and pregnant women in the DPRK. It marked the first South Korean humanitarian aid to the DPRK since the Moon Jae-in government was inaugurated in May 2017. The Moon administration announced the eight-million-U.S. dollar donation plan in 2017, but it had been halted on the international sanctions against Pyongyang. During the telephone conversation with Moon last month, U.S. President Donald Trump expressed support for the South Korean humanitarian aid to the DPRK. The last South Korean food aid to the DPRK happened in 2010 when 5,000 tons of rice was delivered to the north. [SK aid] [US dominance]
• S.Korean NGOs Sent Massive Aid to N.Korea
  By Yoon Hyung-jun June 05, 2019 12:04 South Korean NGOs gave North Korea a whopping W5.72 billion worth of food aid between 2018 and April of this year -- W2.2 billion in 2018 and W3.5 billion in the first four months of this year alone (US$1=W1,184). That is more than the US$4.5 million in food aid the South Korean government has pledged through international aid agencies. According to data the Unification Ministry submitted to the National Assembly, NGOs supplied flour, corn, powdered milk, cooking oil and bread to the North on 12 occasions. The flour and grain supplies totaled 12,000 tons worth W4.4 billion. The government wants to funnel its own food aid through international aid agencies, though North Korea has sneered at the offer and it is doubtful whether it is really suffering a severe food shortage. [Aid] [NGO] [US disapproval]
• South Korea approves $8 million aid to North Korea
  Posted : 2019-06-05 17:09 Updated : 2019-06-05 17:26 Lim Hyoung-joon, the head of the World Food Programme's Korea Office, gives a presentation about the food situation in North Korea at a forum hosted by the Korea Institute for National Unification at the Koreana Hotel in Seoul, May 30. Yonhap By Jung Da-min The Ministry of Unification has approved a plan to send $8 million (about 9.4 billion won) worth of humanitarian assistance to North Korea through international agencies. About $4.5 million will be allocated to the World Food Program (WFP) to support its food shipment projects, while $3.5 million will go to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) maternal and child healthcare and nutrition programs, the ministry announced Wednesday. [SK Aid] [US disapproval]
• Seoul Ready to Help N.Korea Fight African Swine Fever
  By Ahn Jun-yong June 04, 2019 11:40 A senior official in Seoul has called on the government to deliver drugs and equipment to North Korea to prevent the spread of African swine fever. Vice Unification Minister Suh Ho told a meeting in Seoul that South Korea must discuss delivering the necessary equipment with Washington. "Working-level officials are already exchanging views with their U.S. counterparts about this," he said. "We haven't received any request for help from the North yet," he added. African swine fever broke out in China last August. It has spread to the North Korean province of Jagang recently. Seoul notified Pyongyang through the inter-Korean liaison office last Friday of its willingness to help with disinfection and quarantine. But as of Monday there was no answer. The two sides are supposed to exchange information on infectious diseases under a cross-border agreement concluded last November. "The two sides need to cooperate to fight animal diseases too in the spirit of the agreement, but this isn't clearly stated," a Unification Ministry official said. [Swine fever] [Sanctions effect] [Collateral] [Aid]
• S. Korea to provide 50,000 tons of food to N. Korea via international organizations
  Posted on : Jun.3,2019 16:57 KST Modified on : Jun.3,2019 16:57 KST Democratic Party convenes supreme council in Panmunjom to discuss plan Lee Hae-chan, head of the South Korean Democratic Party, looks out at a North Korean soldier in Panmunjom in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, on May 31. (photo pool) Sul Hoon, a supreme council member with the Democratic Party, said on May 31 that the South Korean government “plans to provide 50,000 tons of food aid [to North Korea] through an international agency next week.” Speaking during a supreme council meeting at Freedom House on the South Korean side of the Panmunjom Joint Security Area (JSA) that day, Sul said, “According to a UN study, the number of North Korean suffering from a shortage of food is around 10.1 million, or about 40% of the total population.” “Another 1.45 million tons will be needed to resolve the North Korean food shortage,” he continued, stressing that “we cannot miss the period from May to September, when North Korea is most in need of food aid.” North Korean citizens wave at members of the South Korean Democratic Party’s supreme council in Panmunjom on May 31. (photo pool) Sul also called for the pursuit of direct aid based on discussions between South and North Korean authorities. “We need to consider providing immediate support independent and with a sense of urgency, rather than indirect support through international organizations,” he said. “I propose that we hold discussions with North Korea toward establishing a stable and transparent environment for direct aid,” he added. Sul went on to say, “Many North Koreans died of hunger during the mid-1990s, and we merely looked on without being able to provide any real aid.” “That cannot be allowed to happen again,” he said. [Aid] [Minjoo]

• Switzerland donates US$5 mln in humanitarian aid to N. Korea: OCHA
  North Korea 10:19 May 22, 2019 SEOUL, May 22 (Yonhap) -- Switzerland has donated about US$5 million in humanitarian assistance for North Korea, making the European country one the largest donors to the impoverished state this year, data showed Wednesday. According to the data by the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), which tracks incoming funding for aid agencies, Switzerland donated $4.98 million last month for the World Food Programme's projects in North Korea. This brought Switzerland's donations for North Korea this year to $7.8 million, which accounts for 49.6 percent of the total funding secured by aid agencies. Russia came next with $4 million, followed by Sweden and Canada with $2.44 million and $570,000, respectively, the data showed. North Korea is reportedly facing severe food shortages apparently aggravated by global sanctions and unfavorable weather conditions. The WFP and the Food and Agriculture Organization recently reported that North Korea's crop output last year hit the lowest level since 2008, adding that an estimated 10 million people, or about 40 percent of its population, are in urgent need of food. Last week, South Korea announced a plan to donate $8 million to international agencies, including the WFP, to help address malnutrition and health problems facing pregnant women and kids in the North. [Aid] [Switzerland]
• 'NK food aid will be in line with global consensus'
  Posted : 2019-05-21 17:00 Updated : 2019-05-21 17:00 Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul speaks in a press conference in Seoul, Tuesday. He shared his views on South Korea's plan to provide humanitarian aid to North Korea. Yonhap By Lee Min-hyung South Korean government will continue pushing ahead with its plan to provide humanitarian aid to North Korea according to the general consensus of the international community, Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul said Tuesday. In a press conference, Kim said the issue should never be linked with political affairs on the Korean Peninsula, and the government will garner diverse efforts to seek internal and external consensus over the plan. "The broad consensus from the international community is that no positive or negative political factors should be considered when offering humanitarian aid," Kim told reporters in Seoul. Toward this end, Seoul and Washington will continue negotiating details to provide the aid package to the North, which will also then help revive momentum for dialogues with Pyongyang, Kim said. The remark came at a time when the North shows little sign of resuming talks with the South and the U.S. in the wake of the failure of the Hanoi summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in February. The breakdown of the summit has since cast a gloomy outlook on the security situation on the Korean Peninsula, with the North recently engaging in a series of missile tests. [SK aid] [US dominance]
• Food Aid Pours in Even as N.Korea Boasts of Grain Harvest
  By Lee Kil-seong, Cho Yi-jun May 20, 2019 11:53 China sent North Korea some 1,000 tons of rice and 162,007 tons of fertilizer after leader Kim Jong-un paid his second visit in May last year, according to statistics from China's General Administration of Customs. Yet even as the North has gone to the UN with begging bowl in hand, one official boasted of increased grain production in the failed command economy. China gave the North 1,000 tons of free rice worth US$1.02 million last July, according to the statistics out Sunday, and 162,007 tons of free fertilizer worth $55.03 million until last October. The shipments were mostly made after Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Kim in Dalian on May 7-8. After the summit, there was widespread speculation that Xi had promised Kim massive economic aid. China's fertilizer shipments to the North last year were equal to the total amount of fertilizer the North imported from overseas in 2016. In 2013, China sent 200,000 tons of fertilizer to the North but in 2017 none as Pyongyang angered Beijing with continued missile tests. One ton of urea fertilizer can produce around 2 tons of food in the North, a relatively inefficient yield but a useful metric to calculate the North's actual food production. But despite calls for international food aid, a North Korean official boasted at UN headquarters of increased food production, Voice of America reported last Saturday. On May 9, Ri Kyong-hun told a UN session that the North's agricultural production continued to increase over the past three years thanks to greater investment and advanced farming technology. He said grain prices dropped each year over the past four years and hit their lowest point so far in 2019. [Food production]
• North Korean food aid has nothing to do with security: National Security Office chief
  Posted : 2019-05-17 17:08 Updated : 2019-05-17 17:34 Chung Eui-yong, chief of the National Security Office, speaks in a media briefing at Cheong Wa Dae in Seoul, Friday. Yonhap By Lee Min-hyung South Korea will stick to its plan to provide food aid to North Korea, as this should be seen from a humanitarian perspective regardless of the country's recent provocations, National Security Office (NSO) chief Chung Eui-yong said Friday. Chung said the government will soon announce details of its food aid plan. "We have set up guidelines, but are still working out the details," Chung told reporters at Cheong Wa Dae. "The issue of providing food aid to North Korea should be reviewed from the viewpoint of compatriots without regard to national security." [SK aid] [Aid weapon]
• Is N.Korea Really in Dire Need of Food Aid?
  May 16, 2019 13:40 The head of the World Food Programme visited Seoul and met on Monday with President Moon Jae-in as well as the unification and foreign ministers to appeal for food aid for North Korea. Last week Moon said in a TV interview just a few days after North Korea's latest missile provocations that he would "seek the support and opinion" of the South Korean public before deciding on any food aid for the North. But it looks like he is not seeking them very hard and practically falling over himself to throw whatever aid he can at the North. Yet former U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley said Tuesday that she does not think this may be the right time to provide food aid to the North, and according to Daily NK, which has tracked rice prices in North Korea for some time, the price of 1 kg of the staple actually fell from around W5,000 in November last year to around W4,000 last month (US$1=W1,190). Right now, two thirds of North Korea's population buy rice from open-air markets rather than getting them from rations. If the rice shortage was that severe, prices would have shot up. If there is a shortage, it is only in rations for the North's venal elite. At any rate, North Korea has ungraciously denounced the South's food aid plans as "empty talk" and "trivial bartering." That is hardly the behavior of a country in dire need. The U.S. said it does not exactly oppose humanitarian aid to the North, but also questions whether there is a true food shortage there. Food is not covered by international sanctions, so the regime could perfectly easily buy it abroad instead of frittering money away on missile launches. When North Korea fired its latest missiles, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the North could use that money to care for its people. And Haley said she fears Kim Jong-un may use any money he saves from getting free food aid to build more nuclear weapons. That is exactly what he has in mind. [Food security] [Sanctions effect] [Military spending] [Hypocrisy] [Aid] [Conservatives]
• WFP head ‘very concerned’ about N. Korea‘s food shortages
  By Yonhap Published : May 13, 2019 - 18:18 Updated : May 13, 2019 - 18:18 The head of a U.N. food agency said Monday he is “very concerned” about food shortages in North Korea and called for donations to the impoverished communist nation, affirming that the agency will try to make sure aid will reach those intended. World Food Programme Executive Director David Beasley made the remarks to reporters after he met with South Korean Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul to discuss North Korea’s worsening food situation. “We are very concerned about the situation there and we are hopeful that we can come up with some solutions,” Beasley said. “Whatever we do, we will assure the donors that the food or any assistance will meet their objectives. We‘ll have monitoring systems in place.” Their meeting came as the South Korean government is formulating plans to provide food aid to the North in the hope of helping alleviate the situation there and to help keep the stalled negotiating process alive, despite the North’s recent projectile launches. [WFP] [Food security] [Sanctions effect] [Hypocrisy]
• North Korea faces drought amid worsening food shortages: charity group
  Posted : 2019-05-15 11:08 Updated : 2019-05-15 11:09 North Korea suffers from serious droughts that led to reduced grain production and dried-up rivers, according to an American charity group that visited the country. gettyimagesbank North Korea is suffering from serious droughts that have led to a sharp drop in grain production and the drying of many rivers, a U.S. charity group said in a report after a trip to the impoverished communist nation. Christian Friends of Korea (CFK), a U.S.-based nonprofit organization, sent an 11-member team to North Korea from March 18-April 8 to check on the distribution of its assistance and treat hepatitis patients in medical care centers across the country. The organization posted a report on its website detailing the team's trip. "Throughout our travels, we heard from many care centers that the 2018 corn crop sustained heavy losses (40-50 percent reduction) due to the drought and prolonged high temperatures last summer," the report said. "While the winter was fairly mild, it also lacked in snowfall, so drought conditions are continuing into the spring planting season. Riverbeds for the most part were dry or very low through the region where we traveled," it added. North Korean farmers work hard to provide water during the drought in this file photo from the country's party mouthpiece Rodong Sinmun on Aug. 2, 2018. Yonhap The report appears to be in line with North Korea's recent media reports highlighting growing concerns over drought caused by a sharp drop in precipitation. The Rodong Sinmun, North Korea's official newspaper, called for all-out efforts to fight drought, saying nationwide damage is expected following a sharp drop in the country's average precipitation. The World Food Programme and the Food and Agriculture Organization recently reported, based on its visit to North Korea, that the country's crop output last year hit the lowest level since 2008, adding that an estimated 10 million people, or about 40 percent of its population, are in urgent need of food. They also projected that the food situation in North Korea could deteriorate during the "lean season from May to September, if no proper and urgent humanitarian actions are taken." South Korea is drawing up plans to provide food to North Korea in the hope of helping alleviate the situation there and to help keep the stalled negotiating process alive, despite the North's recent projectile launches. A unification official earlier said that it is necessary to send food before September as recommended by the WFP and FAO report to effectively help North Korean people. (Yonhap) [Food security] [Drought] [Sanctions effect]
• Moon Discusses Food Aid for N.Korea with WFP Chief
  By Cho Yi-jun, Ahn Jun-yong May 14, 2019 13:32 President Moon Jae-in met with World Food Programme Executive Director David Beasley on Monday to discuss food donations to North Korea. Beasley, who is in Seoul for a forum organized by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, also met with Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul and Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha. The U.S. government had made it clear it will not intervene if South Korea sends food aid to the North. But North Korea has just carried out several missile tests again, so the South Korean government's haste has raised some eyebrows. "Beasley talked about recent WFP reports on the food shortage in North Korea, and expressed concerns about seriously low food rations there," Cheong Wa Dae said Monday. "He stressed the importance of emergency humanitarian aid to the vulnerable people of North Korea, and President Moon agreed." [Food security] [WFP] [Hypocrisy] [US dominance] [Aid weapon]
• DPR Korea: Hunger warning after early drought
  Beijing/Kuala Lumpur/Geneva, 13 May 2019 – Early seasonal drought in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) could exacerbate hunger, malnutrition and health problems for thousands of children, pregnant and breastfeeding women, older people and the chronically ill. The drought, which started in early spring after months of unusually erratic weather, is harming crops that should be harvested in June and September. The drought follows a lean 2018 where food production was 12 per cent below the previous year and the lowest in a decade. In all, an estimated 10.1 million people (40 per cent of the population) are in need of urgent food assistance – a situation that this drought could only worsen. Head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) country office in DPRK, Mohamed Babiker, said: “We are particularly concerned about the impact that this early drought will have on children and adults who are already struggling to survive. Even before this drought, one in five children under five years old was stunted because of poor nutrition. We are concerned that these children will not be able to cope with further stress on their bodies.” The worst affects of the drought will only be seen in the coming months. However, the IFRC and the DPRK Red Cross are already expanding programmes to help at-risk and highly vulnerable communities to mitigate any food shortages. [Drought]
• Red Cross to provide water pumps to Pyongyang as emergency aid
  Posted : 2019-05-08 11:28 Updated : 2019-05-08 11:28 North Korea's Premier of the Cabinet Pak Pong-ju, left, visited Changyon and Sinchon Counties in South Hwanghae Province to check agricultural produces there, according to Korean Central News Agency, May 23, 2018. Yonhap The international Red Cross has decided to provide North Korea with water pumps as part of an emergency measure to help the impoverished nation cope with worsening food shortages caused in part by droughts. The emergency "action plan" for North Korea will include a provision of 15 mobile water pumps to help improve irrigation under the disaster relief emergency fund, according to a release by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) on Monday. The IFRC has set aside 76,946 Swiss francs ($75,466) for the aid program. The funds will be spent over a three-month period to provide the pumps and fuel to operate the pumps and educate farmers about proper use, it said. The provision is expected to benefit some 331,967 residents, or 5,831 households, in counties in eastern South Hamgyong Province. [Red Cross] [Irrigation]
• Gov't to Offer Food Aid to N.Korea Despite Missile Provocation
  By Lee Yong-soo May 09, 2019 09:54 The government is looking into possibility of providing food aid to North Korea despite the North's firing of a short-range missile last weekend. "I will make an announcement after considering the matter comprehensively," Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul told reporters Wednesday. The comments came just a day after Cheong Wa Dae said President Moon Jae-in and his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump discussed the issue in a telephone call on Tuesday. Speaking after a visit to the inter-Korean liaison office in the North Korea's border town of Kaesong, Kim said, "I will look into what specific roles the ministry should play" in providing food aid. It was Kim's first trip to the communist state since taking office last month. The Foreign Ministry is to discuss the issue with U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun, who is currently in Seoul. [SK NK aid] [Conservatives]
• N.Korean State Media Play up Food Shortage
  By Kim Myong-song May 09, 2019 10:35 North Korea's state media is pumping out lachrymose reports on the country's self-inflicted food shortage even as the regime fritters away billions on more weapons tests. The official Rodong Sinmun daily on Tuesday urged North Koreans to "launch a mass drive to raise herbivorous domesticated animals." "We need to raise many domesticated animals such as rabbits, sheep and goats to produce milk, fur and leather by feeding them only grass instead of grain." [Food security] [Sanctions effect] [Agency] [Conservatives]
• Seoul to review size, format of Pyongyang food assistance: Cheong Wa Dae
  Posted : 2019-05-08 12:09 Updated : 2019-05-08 15:51 South Korean President Moon Jae-in's administration said Wednesday it will begin official procedures associated with its plan for food aid to Pyongyang. Courtesy of Cheong Wa Dae South Korea's Moon Jae-in administration will soon begin official procedures associated with its plan for food aid to North Korea, a Cheong Wa Dae official said Wednesday. The official, however, said it's still too early to talk in detail about the issue, as the government has yet to review the size, format and other specifics. Moon and U.S. President discussed the humanitarian issue in their phone conversation Tuesday night (Seoul time). "We are at a stage of beginning a review of all those matters," including preparations for domestic procedures, the official told reporters in a background briefing. Despite Pyongyang's latest show of power on the weekend, Trump expressed support for Seoul's provision of food aid to the poverty-stricken communist nation, according to Moon's office. In a joint report, the World Food Program and the Food and Agriculture Organization said 10 million people in North Korea, 40 percent of the population, are in urgent need of food. Meanwhile, Stephen Biegun, the U.S. special representative for North Korea, plans to visit Cheong Wa Dae during his trip here later this week, according to the official. It has not been decided yet whether Moon will meet with the envoy in person, the official added. (Yonhap) [SK Aid] [US dominance]
• U.S. won't 'intervene' if S. Korea sends food aid to North: White House
  May 09, 2019 WASHINGTON, May 8 (Yonhap) -- The United States won't "intervene" if South Korea decides to send food aid to North Korea, the White House said Wednesday. U.S. President Donald Trump expressed support for South Korea's possible humanitarian assistance to the North during a phone call with President Moon Jae-in on Tuesday, the latter's office said. White House press secretary Sarah Sanders was asked at a meeting with reporters Wednesday if Trump will go along with the plan despite the North's firing of projectiles last week. "Our position in regards to North Korea is going to continue to be the maximum pressure campaign. Our focus is on the denuclearization," Sanders said, referring to the U.S.-led sanctions aimed at dismantling the North's nuclear weapons program. "If South Korea moves forward on that front, we're not going to intervene," she added. [SK aid NK] [US dominance] [Sanctions effect]
• FAO/WFP Joint Rapid Food Security Assessment to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK)
  Prolonged dry spells, abnormally high temperatures and floods, coupled with limited supplies of agricultural inputs, had a severe impact on yields of the 2018 main crops harvested last September/October. Production prospects for the 2018/19 early season crops – to be harvested in June – are unfavourable due to widespread low rainfall and lack of snow cover, which left crops exposed to freezing temperatures during winter. Post-harvest losses from harvesting to storage are expected to be higher than usual as shortages of fuel and electricity hampered the timely transport and processing of crops as well as the ventilation of stocks. The 2018 aggregate food crop production is estimated to be below-average at 4.9 million mt, 12 percent below the previous year’s near-average level and the lowest level since the 2008/09 season. Cereal import requirements in the 2018/19 marketing year (November/October) are estimated at 1.59 million mt. With commercial imports officially planned at 200,000 mt and food assistance (already received or pledged) set at about 21,200 mt, the uncovered deficit for the full marketing year is estimated at an elevated level of about 1.36 million mt. Food consumption levels are low, and dietary diversity is very poor. Diets mainly consist of rice, maize or potatoes complimented by kimchi (cabbage), or vegetables and greens when available. Protein intake is very low. Poor food consumption is widespread in the surveyed population in both November (37 percent) and April (46 percent) assessments, and only few households have an acceptable diet. Food-related coping strategies are widely adopted, including reducing consumption by adults for children to eat and reducing meal sizes. Urban households who typically rely on relatives in rural areas to access food and diversify their consumption are no longer able to do so to the same extent, as also rural households increasingly face food shortages. Since January 2019, rations of the Public Distribution System (PDS) have been reduced to 300 grams per person per day (g/pp/day), which compares to 380 grams during the same period in 2018. Rations may decline further during the July to September period, when PDS rations are typically lower compared to other months of the year. Overall, it is estimated that 10.1 million people (40 percent of the population) are food insecure and in urgent need of food assistance. The situation could further deteriorate during the lean season from May to September, if no proper and urgent humanitarian actions are taken. [Food security] [Sanctions effect] [Hypocrisy]
• After worst harvest in ten years, 10 million people in North Korea face imminent food shortages
  UN report finds worryingly low food consumption, limited dietary diversity and families being forced to cut meals or eat less 3 May 2019, Pyongyang/Rome - A United Nations food security assessment in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (also known as North Korea) has found that following the worst harvest in 10 years, due to dry spells, heatwaves and flooding, about 10.1 million people suffer from severe food shortages, meaning they do not have enough food until the next harvest. The aggregate 2018/19 food crop production is estimated at 4.9 million metric tons, which is the lowest since the 2008/09 season. In addition to unfavourable climatic conditions, limited supplies of agricultural inputs, such as fuel, fertilizer and spare parts have had significant adverse impact. [Food security] [Sanctions effect] [Hypocrisy]

• Christian Friends of Korea April Newsletter
  CFK TEAM RETURNS TO DPRK FOR 3-WEEK HUMANITARIAN VISIT
  After a season of steep challenges last fall and through the winter due to the impact of sanctions and “maximum pressure,” we were grateful to receive travel approval from both the US and DPRK governments to resume our travel and humanitarian work in the DPRK among TB and hepatitis patients. Our team of 11, including US, Australian and Norwegian citizens, spent a total of 3 weeks in the DPRK, from March 18 – April 8 [Aid] [Religion] [NGO]
• $5.7 Mln in Global Aid for N. Korea Pledged This Year
  Write: 2019-04-20 13:17:16 / Update: 2019-04-20 13:27:47 World countries and international organizations have pledged over five-point-seven million dollars in humanitarian aid for North Korea so far this year. This is according to data from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. By amount, Switzerland accounts for nearly half of the global total at over 49 percent, having pledged two-point-eight million dollars. Sweden comes in second at 42-point-six percent followed by Germany at a distant third, accounting for six percent, and then Ireland at two percent. Sweden has pledged over a million dollars and Switzerland 270-thousand dollars with the World Food Programme. The UN office says 33 percent of the total aid will go towards food support and the rest will be used to improve water hygiene and in other restoration work. Annual aid for North Korea continues to decline posting four-point-three million dollars in 2016 and three-point-three million last year. The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs compiles related data based on information submitted by governments, NGOs, UN agencies and charity groups. [Aid]

• UN to Decide on Food Aid to N.Korea
  By Kim Myong-song February 08, 2019 13:55 The UN World Food Programme will soon finalize a new aid program worth about US$160 million for North Korea, Radio Free Asia reported Thursday. The program aims to deliver nutrition supplements to 2.8 million North Koreans until the end of 2021. Discussion on the new aid program will be held during a meeting of the agency’s board of directors that starts on Feb. 25, WFP spokesman David Orr told RFA. 1/4 of Rural Kids in N.Korea Underweight Nearly 40% of N.Koreans Suffering from Malnutrition Red Cross Emergency Teams Tackle N.Korea's Heat Wave Korea Sends 1st Shipment of Food Aid as Member of FAC N.Koreans Are Easy Prey for Infectious Diseases Cabinet OKs US$8 Million Humanitarian Aid to N.Korea N.Korea Reeling from Flood Damage UNICEF Gives Nutrition Aid to N.Korean Children N.Korean Mothers Suffer Serious Malnutrition Living Conditions Getting Worse for Ordinary N.Koreans Most N.Korean Children Undernourished [WFP] [Aid] [Malnutrition] [Sanctions]

• Tractors for North Korean farmers ready and primed
  Posted on : Jan.18,2019 16:51 KST Modified on : Jan.18,2019 16:51 KST A collective of farmers and civic groups who are preparing to send tractors to North Korean farmers for the spring harvest held a press conference outside the South Jeolla Provincial Office on Jan. 17. The collective has acquired six tractors thus far, and started their engines to show them off. The tractors will be sent to North Korean farmers in the spirit of unification and the Panmunjom Declaration. (provided by the South Jeolla Branch of the Korean Peasants League) [Aid]
• North Korea food production fell this year, U.N. estimates
  AFP-JIJI Dec 13, 2018 SEOUL - Food production has fallen this year in isolated, nuclear-armed North Korea, according to the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization. Rice and corn are the North’s main staples, but rice output was expected to be below average because of erratic rains and low irrigation supplies, the FAO said in its quarterly Crop Prospects and Food Situation report. Unfavorable weather conditions also diminished corn yields, it added. As a result the country would need to import 641,000 tons of food in the coming year, up from 456,000 tons this year, when it bought 390,000 tons and received 66,000 tons in food aid. [Food] [Agriculture] [Irrigation]
• IFRC: Extreme weather intensifies ‘chronic forgotten crisis’ in North Korea
  Share on Facebook Tweet Send email 02/01/2019 - by the Climate Centre (A version of this story appeared first on the IFRC news site late last month) Despite a recent diplomatic thaw, the humanitarian situation in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) remains one of the world’s most chronic and forgotten crises, with UN sanctions having unintended consequences for already vulnerable people, the IFRC said in a press release late last month. Last year heatwave and drought, Typhoon Soulik, and floods and landslides “exacerbated and created new humanitarian needs”, according to the International Federation. “As a result, people have crucial and unmet needs in nutrition, water, sanitation, hygiene and health. “Infant and maternal mortality rates are well above global averages, especially in rural areas,” while more than 10 million people suffer from food insecurity, under-nutrition and lack of access to basic services. Delays “The health situation is extremely worrying,” said DPRK Red Cross Secretary General Ri Ho Rim. “The impact of sanctions on basic medicines is severe. For example, the lack of vaccines, anti-viral medicines, rapid testing kits, personal protective equipment for health workers and hand sanitizer were major factors in an influenza outbreak earlier this year.” The IFRC press release says sanctions against the DPRK are not intended to restrict humanitarian activities or have adverse humanitarian consequences for the civilian population. But in practice delays occur with “a serious impact on already vulnerable people” due to the fear of banks, suppliers and officials of violating sanctions. [Food] [Malnutrition] [Health] [Sanctions]
• Seoul to Send Flu Drugs to N.Korea
  By Kim Myong-song January 09, 2019 13:19 South Korea will send about 200,000 doses of the influenza antiviral drug Tamiflu to North Korea. A Unification Ministry official said on Tuesday it will deliver the drugs to the border town of Kaesong on Friday along with 50,000 rapid diagnostic test kits donated by a private company. This is the first delivery of Tamiflu to the North since the Lee Myung-bak administration sent 400,000 doses in 2009, at the height of the bird flu scare, as well as 100,000 doses of Relenza. Some W3.56 billion from the Inter-Korean Cooperation Fund will be spent on purchase and transport (US$1=W1,126). The donor company will spend another W1 billion on the rapid diagnostic test kits. The two Koreas agreed at their summit in Pyongyang last September to strengthen cooperation in healthcare and medicine. In working-level talks in November and December, they also discussed cooperation to prevent flu epidemics. U.S. officials approved the planned delivery in a working-group meeting discussing the implementation of sanctions against the renegade country in Seoul late last year. "Some 150,000 were diagnosed with flu in the North between late 2017 and early 2018," the official said. [Aid] [Health] [Enlightened self-interest] [Contagion] [Sanctions effect]

• NGOs 'better at solving some of North Korea's intractable problems'
  Posted : 2018-12-13 15:55 Updated : 2018-12-13 15:55 Dr. Stephen Linton, the founder and chief of the Eugene Bell Foundation, tells tuberculosis (TB) patients how to collect sputum samples, during the organization's three-week visit to North Korea from Oct. 16 to Nov. 6. Courtesy of the Eugene Bell Foundation By Jung Da-min It is time for the two Koreas to permit private sector exchanges so personal relationships can be developed, the leader of a major NGO says. "When government officials monopolize and control private level exchanges, it is difficult for people from the South and North to effect real reconciliation," said Dr. Stephen Linton, who has long led humanitarian efforts focused on North Korea. Dr. Stephen Linton. Korea Times photo by Jung Da-min "If the government permits access, all private citizens can develop relationships with North Korea. But if it then suddenly restricts them, real relationships cannot develop. This happens when governments fund private exchanges and then, suddenly, when policy changes, withdraw support." [NGO] [People-to-people]
• US Deflects UN Request to Fund Humanitarian Aid for N. Korea
  December 11, 2018 9:15 PM Christy Lee WASHINGTON — The United States is resisting calls from the United Nations to provide humanitarian aid to North Korea, citing Pyongyang's continuing expansion of its nuclear and ballistic missile arsenal. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a report released last week that $111 million is needed to fund humanitarian efforts in North Korea next year. In "Global Humanitarian Overview 2019," the OCHA said the money could provide aid to 6 million of 10.3 million North Koreans who will need humanitarian support in 2019. In response, a State Department spokesperson said while the U.S. is concerned, North Korea has the means to meet its own humanitarian needs. [Pushback] [Aid] [Victim] [Aid weapon]
• CROP PROSPECTS and FOOD SITUATION
  Quarterly Global Report from FAO
  Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
  Localized production shortfalls for 2018 main crop and economic downturn • Reflecting expectations of a reduced 2018 main season cereal output, most households are anticipated to continue to experience borderline or poor food consumption rates.

• Letter to Trump from US NGOs re aid
  Re: U.S. NGO Humanitarian Assistance to North Korea Dear President Trump, As a coalition of U.S. humanitarian, Korean-American, peacebuilding, arms control, veteran, academic, faith-based, and other civil society organizations, we write to you to express our deep concern over U.S. policies exacerbating an already dire humanitarian situation in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK/North Korea). These policies will increase the suffering of ordinary North Koreans, restrict people-to-people engagement, and risk undermining high-level diplomacy. [Aid]
• Letter from Senator Markey to President Trump re aid
  
• A harvest of rice to send tractors to North Korean farmers
  Posted on : Nov.1,2018 16:06 KST Modified on : Nov.1,2018 16:06 KST A coalition of farmers who call themselves the “Unification Farm” gathered on Oct. 31 in Goesan County, North Chungcheong Province, in preparation to sell seven to eight tons of rice and then use the proceedings to buy tractors to send to farmers in North Korea. Although the farmers say they’re “selling” the rice, they’re in actuality delivering it to people generous enough to offer donations to the cause. The gift of tractors will be delivered by the coalition in the name of farmers aiding each other, regardless of whether they’re in the South or North. (provided by the Alliance of North Chungcheong Farmers) [Aid]
• Access to market key issue in North Korea's food security
  Posted : 2018-11-01 15:10 Updated : 2018-11-02 00:58 The 2018 International Conference on Humanitarian and Development Assistance to the DPRK was held at the Kim Koo Museum in Seoul, Wednesday. Korea Times photo by Jung Da-min By Jung Da-min Some might think North Korea's food supply and demand would be unstable, but prices in the market are remarkably steady, according to Kwon Tae-jin, director of the Center for North Korean and Northeast Asian Studies at the GS&J Institute. It comes against the background that North Korea's rationing system does not work properly, Kwon said at the 2018 International Conference on Humanitarian and Development Assistance to the DPRK at the Kim Koo Museum in Seoul, Wednesday. The Korean Sharing Movement hosted the event with the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Korea and Gyeonggi Province. Kwon said how to increase residents' access to the market or, more fundamentally, how to increase their incomes, was the priority. He also called for a review of the country's food security and its agricultural policies. Kwon attributed North Korea's stable food market prices to the country's unrecorded imports from neighboring countries including China. [PDS] [Market] [Food situation] [Sanctions]

• 1/4 of Rural Kids in N.Korea Underweight
  By Kim Myong-song October 18, 2018 12:24 The UN Food and Agriculture Organization on Wednesday warned that rural poverty has reached alarming proportions in North Korea as the gap between city and country widens. According to the FAO's 2018 white paper, 15.6 million North Koreans now live in urban areas, accounting for 62 percent of the entire population of 25 million. That is a relatively slow increase from 58 percent in 1990. But young North Koreans are migrating to the cities, and the youth population per 1,000 ha of farmland dropped 11 percent from 974 in 1995 to 860 in 2015. The wealth gap between country and city is widening. One in every four rural children is undernourished and underweight and the North has the most serious poverty issue in East Asia, the FAO said. The proportion of underweight children in rural areas is 27 percent but only 13 percent in the cities. [Malnutrition] [Sanctions]
• Keith Luse: Maximum Pressure Could End U.S. Humanitarian Assistance to North Koreans
  October 11, 2018 A Statement by NCNK Executive Director Keith Luse President Trump is to be commended for his active outreach to North Korea, and commitment toward a peaceful resolution of the situation on the Korean Peninsula. Unfortunately, his Administration is concurrently ending the era of American civil society organizations providing humanitarian assistance to North Korea. American citizens and NGOs have provided humanitarian assistance to that country for decades. Whether motivated by a faith-based perspective - or out of a compassionate nature - all have been committed to saving the lives of the neediest of North Korea's citizens, including children, the elderly and pregnant mothers. Thousands of North Koreans neglected by their own government, particularly in rural areas, know their lives have been impacted, or saved because of the intervention of the American people. [Sanctions] [Aid]

• Damaging Floods in North Korea Raise Need for Humanitarian Assistance
  Posted on 18 September 2018. By Robert R. King We are at the peak of the annual hurricane season, and this year looks to be another painful reminder of Mother Nature’s power. The Southeast United States has just seen one of the largest and most destructive hurricanes in recent memory. In the Pacific hurricane Lane dropped record-breaking amounts rain on Hawaii, and typhoon Mangkhut, ravaged the Philippines and then moved on to inflict destruction in Hong Kong and southern China with 170 mile per hour winds and record rainfall. Northeast Asia has also suffered under this year’s severe storms. In late August two major typhoons—Soulik and Cimarron—affected significant areas in Japan, South Korea, and North Korea. All three countries felt the effects, but in North Korea, the impact was far greater. In some areas in just a few hours rainfall reached nearly 25 inches. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies reported in early September that severe flooding in North Korea killed 76 people and that at least 75 people, including many children, were missing. Thousands were left homeless by the destructive floods, which destroyed some 800 homes, schools, medical clinics and other buildings. Areas most affected were North and South Hwanghae provinces, which are nationally important agricultural areas of southwest North Korea. The flooding came four weeks after reports that these same two provinces were suffering severe drought as a late summer heatwave resulted in rice, corn (maize) and other crops withering. The twin scourge of drought followed by severe flooding is unfortunately a common pattern in the DPRK. The North Korean famine of the mid- to late-1990s—known as the “Arduous March”—was in part caused by a similar drought followed by severe flooding, though these natural causes were amplified by economic mismanagement and the cessation of significant Soviet economic aid with the collapse of the Soviet Union after 1991. [Aid] [Hypocrisy] [Mismanagement]
• DPRK: High temperatures and below-average rainfall could affect the 2018 main season food output
  • Below-average rains, coupled with high temperatures from mid-July until mid-August, a critical period for crops, affected 8 percent of the average area cultivated in the main season. The main agricultural season starts in April, with the arrival of the spring rains, and the harvest normally takes place between September and October (see Figure 1). Overall, cumulative rainfall during the 2018 cropping season has been above average; nonetheless, the Figure 1: Democratic People's Rrepublic of Korea - Crop calendar *major foodcrop Rice* Maize* Soybean* Sorghum temporal distribution of precipitation has been erratic, with negative consequences for crops. Rainfall from April to early July was generally average to above average over the main producing areas of the country, benefitting planting activities and early development of the 2018 main season crops. However, below-average rains from mid-July until mid-August, normally the wettest months, coupled with high temperatures, resulted in moisture stress during critical crop development stages in localized areas of the main crop producing provinces, including South and North Hwanghae, and South and North Hamgyong [Agriculture]
• A Practical Opportunity to Serve the People of North Korea
  North Korea, which is formally known as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, has been in the news a lot lately. In October 2018, Rev. Richard Lawrence and the Rev. Dr. Stuart Vogel will make a private visit North Korea in October. They are both ministers of the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand and have visited the DPRK previously. Rev Lawrence currently teaches at the Waikato Institute of Technology (WINTEC). Rev. Dr. Vogel is the minister of the Auckland Chinese Presbyterian Church. The aim of the visit is to enhance our personal contacts with the education institutions and the Korean Christian Federation in the DPRK. We hope to discern ways to encourage mutual interaction and exchanges between our churches and educational institutions.

• As food crisis threatens, humanitarian aid for North Korea grinds to a halt
  Hyonhee Shin SEOUL (Reuters) - Humanitarian aid for North Korea has nearly ground to a halt this year as the United States steps up the enforcement of sanctions, despite warnings of a potential food crisis and improving relations with Pyongyang, aid groups say. FILE PHOTO - Workers unload food aid from a truck in the Sinuiju region of North Korea in this picture taken on December 11, 2008 from a tourist boat on the Yalu River, which divides North Korea and China. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo International sanctions imposed over North Korea’s nuclear weapons programs technically do not cover humanitarian activities, and the United Nations recently adopted a U.S. proposal designed to streamline approval for aid shipments. But strict interpretations of U.N. sanctions curtailing banking and shipping transactions with Pyongyang, as well as a travel ban for U.S. citizens, have effectively shut down the North Korea operations of most relief groups, according to a dozen officials at U.N. agencies and civilian organizations. A ban on the shipment of any metal objects, from health diagnostic instruments to spoons to nail clippers, makes it nearly impossible to deliver even basic healthcare to North Korea, the officials say. Farm machines, greenhouses and ambulances, meanwhile, are sitting idle without spare parts. [Sanctions] [Aid] [Aid weapon] [Hypocrisy] [UNUS][War crime]
• Humanitarian aid to North Korea
  Total reported funding for U.N. and NGO activities 200820102012201420162018020406080100US$120 million 2012 US$117.8 million Note: 2018 data is year to date Source: the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs' Financial Tracking Service Hyonhee Shin | REUTERS GRAPHICS [Aid]
• Red Cross Warns of Food Crisis in North Korea as Crops Fail in Heat
  Aug. 10, 2018, at 4:33 a.m. U.S. News & World Report By Stephanie Nebehay GENEVA (Reuters) - A heat wave in North Korea has led to rice, maize and other crops withering in the fields, "with potentially catastrophic effects", the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said on Friday. The world's largest disaster relief network warned of a risk of a "full-blown food security crisis" in the isolated country, where a famine in the mid-1990s killed up to three million people. It said the worrying situation had been exacerbated by international sanctions imposed due to North Korea's nuclear and missile programs. [Drought] [Food security] [Context]
• UN Sanctions Against North Korea, Encouraging De Facto Biological Warfare
  By Carla Stea Global Research, August 11, 2018 “UN sanctions announced last August stepped up the pressure by removing the parts of prior sanctions that had attempted to avoid humanitarian consequences.” The Washington Post, July 20, 2018. “Healthcare should not be used as a weapon!” Dr. Jennifer Furin, Harvard trained physician treating Tuberculosis patients for 28 years. “Tuberculosis is the leading killer among infectious diseases in the world.” Brendan Varma, Spokesperson for the President of the 72 UN General Assembly, August 8, 2018. The UN Security Council sanctions have imposed strangling economic warfare upon the DPRK from 2006 up to the present. It is becoming evident, now, that these UN Sanctions are encouraging a form of de facto biological warfare against the citizens of the DPRK. This is a criminal violation of international law for which the United Nations Security Council must immediately be held accountable. This attack on the people of North Korea is reaching proportions that may ultimately lead to a global pandemic of resistant strains of Tuberculosis, the most lethal form of the disease and most difficult to treat. In a decision which has horrified humanitarian organizations worldwide, the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Malaria and Tuberculosis has cut funding to North Korea. “This will be a disaster that the global health community will pay for later,” stated Dr. Jennifer Furin, a Harvard trained doctor and researcher who has treated TB patients for more than two decades. “This is a politically created problem that will turn into a health catastrophe, not just for the people living in the DPRK, but for everybody.” The closure of programs is likely to lead to ‘massive stock-outs of quality-assured TB drugs nationwide,’ wrote Harvard Medical School doctors in an open letter to the Global Fund, published in the Lancet. Such privation in the past has led to the rapid creation of drug-resistant TB strains, as doctors ration pills and patients take incomplete regimens.’” Doctors throughout the world were shocked when the Global Fund announced in February that it would halt its TB funds to the DPRK from June 30. [Sanctions effect] [Health]
• Seoul to push planned aid package to NK
  Posted : 2018-08-07 17:15 Updated : 2018-08-07 17:31 By Kim Yoo-chul A senior government official said Tuesday the government will push ahead with the $8 million aid package for North Korea after the UN Security Council approved new United States-backed guidelines to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid, there. "Sending an $8 million aid package to North Korea is one of the promises that South Korea guaranteed to international organizations. Things will get much easier thanks to a small olive branch from the United States and the U.N.," said one government official by telephone. [SK aid] [US dominance]

• Travel Ban and Sanctions Obstruct Humanitarian Efforts in North Korea
  American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) program assistant for agriculture Zhang Yunyun inspects rice seedlings grown in plastic trays with North Korean partners, May 2017. Linda Lewis, AFSC By Jon Letman Truthout Published July 27, 2018 Within moments of returning from his summit with Kim Jong Un, President Trump struck a triumphant tone, buoyantly tweeting, “There is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea … North Korea has great potential for the future!” But just nine days later he extended an existing executive order “Notice Regarding the Continuation of the National Emergency with Respect to North Korea” declaring, “North Korea continue[s] to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States.” Meanwhile, sanctions imposed by the US, United Nations (UN), European Union and other international entities continue to make life hard for ordinary North Koreans, with no sign of relief in sight. Those sanctions restrict financial transactions and activities as well as stop the flow of goods and commodities like stone, wood, iron, steel, coal, minerals, precious metals, seafood, petroleum and natural gas, and the import of everything from machinery, vehicles, farm equipment, fertilizer and medical supplies to purebred horses and ski gear. But in a country where nearly 41 percent of the population is undernourished and almost 28 percent of children under the age of 5 suffer from chronic malnutrition, people need food, fuel, medicine and other basic necessities. [Sanctions] [Aid] [Travel ban]
• Democratic People’s Republic of Korea: “Very clear evidence of humanitarian need” – UN Humanitarian Chief
  10 Jul 2018 UN Humanitarian Chief Mark Lowcock is in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) to see first-hand the extent of the humanitarian needs, the support the United Nations is providing, and to gauge need for further support. With 10.6 million people in need of humanitarian assistance and chronic malnutrition affecting 20 per cent of children, ERC Lowcock called on donors to step up funding as the 2018 Needs and Priorities Plan that humanitarian partners launched last 12 April remains close to 90 percent underfunded. This is particularly critical as access to people in need has drastically improved over the years, and the UN stands ready to provide much needed relief. [Malnutrition] [UN] [UNUS] [Complicity]
• CFK NEWSLETTER -SUMMER 2018
  Christian Friends of Korea CFK Teams Return to DPRK from May 26 – June 16, 2018 [Aid] [Sanctions] [Dysfunction] [Religion]
• Food Supply and Demand Outlook in 2017/18 (November/October)
  GIEWS Update on The Democratic People's Republic of Korea Highlights: • Aggregate crop production in 2017/18 is forecast at 5.5 million tonnes, 5 percent below the 2016/17 level. • Production prospects for the 2017/18 early season crops are favourable, partially compensating the reduced main season output gathered in October 2017 that was affected by dry weather conditions. • The overall cereal deficit for the 2017/18 marketing year (November/October) is forecast at about 652 000 tonnes, well above the previous year's already high level, reflecting an anticipated reduction in domestic output and imports. [Food security]
• INTERVIEW: UN’s top official in North Korea foresees ‘surge’ in humanitarian aid
  [A UN aid worker surveys the damage in the aftermath of devastating floods that hit the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) in September 2016.] RCO/Mia Paukovic A UN aid worker surveys the damage in the aftermath of devastating floods that hit the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) in September 2016. 28 June 2018 Humanitarian Aid Following the recent positive political developments on the Korean Peninsula, the top United Nations official in North Korea envisages a surge in global humanitarian support for the millions there who are fighting malnutrition and living in poverty. “For the UN, obviously it would mean a lot,” Tapan Mishra, the UN Resident Coordinator in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), told UN News, explaining that the 12 June summit between the leaders of DPRK and the United States not only opens up new opportunities for denuclearization and global peace, but would also help UN agencies to raise more funding to meet the country’s humanitarian needs. He said that humanitarian funding for North Korea has declined dramatically since 2012. In 2017, only 31 per cent of the requested funding has been received. In 2018, the funding situation is even more alarming. Today, only 9 per cent or $10 million of the requested $111 million has been received to assist 6 million vulnerable people in DPRK through the 2018 Needs and Priorities Plan. The lack of funding has already forced UN agencies to prioritize and scale down lifesaving programming. Chronic food insecurity and malnutrition remains widespread. Around 10.3 million people, or 41 per cent of the total population, are undernourished. In this exclusive interview, Mr. Mishra talked about how the UN aid operations have continued to deliver despite the operational constraints, how economic sanctions have had unintended consequences for the lives of ordinary North Koreans and how the recent breakthrough to the political deadlock is giving rise to optimism among the people there. Mr. Mishra leads the UN Humanitarian Country Team, consisting of six agencies on the ground – the UN Development Programme (UNDP), UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Food Programme (WFP), the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and the World Health Organization (WHO); international non-governmental organizations and other international organizations engaged in humanitarian activities – with many other agencies supporting from outside. [Food situation] [Aid] [UN]
• More Than Half of N.Koreans Suffer Food Shortage
  By Jun Hyun-suk July 04, 2018 11:07 More than half of North Koreans are suffering a shortage of food, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said. An economic think tank under the department said in a report that 54.1 percent of North Korea's population or 13.71 million people are suffering a food shortage this year. The department sets 2,100 calories a day as the amount a person needs to remain healthy. In Yemen, which suffers from a devastating civil war, 86 percent of the population suffer a food shortage, the worst case in Asia. The think tank forecast that even in 10 years some 11.58 million North Koreans will still suffer a food shortage. "Normal weather may stimulate agricultural production after three years of contraction," the report said, but added, "43.7 percent of North Korea's population would remain food insecure in 2028 even with this improvement." [Agriculture] [Food security] [Sanctions]

• Humanitarian agencies working in DPR Korea urgently require $111m for life-saving aid
  Report from UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, UN Resident Coordinator for DPR Korea
  Published on 12 Apr 2018 12 April 2018 (Pyongyang): The humanitarian community in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) is urgently requesting US$111 million to assist millions of people in need of humanitarian assistance. The Needs and Priorities Plan 2018, released on 11 April in Pyongyang, outlines the funding agencies working in DPRK need in order to support six million people. This support includes activities to enhance food security, reduce malnutrition, increase access to healthcare, water and sanitation services, and build the resilience of vulnerable communities to natural disasters. More than 10 million people, or 40 per cent of the population, in DPRK are believed to be in need of humanitarian assistance. Undernutrition continues to be a serious concern with more than one-quarter of children stunted due to a lack of adequate food. People also struggle to access basic services, with a large portion of the population living without a reliable source of safe water and almost a quarter without basic sanitation facilities, contributing to serious health concerns. UN Resident Coordinator in DPRK, Mr. Tapan Mishra, said, “Humanitarian assistance is a vital life-line for millions of ordinary people living in DPR Korea. However, funding has been rapidly declining every year, with less than one-third of the amount required for humanitarian programmes raised in 2017. “The Needs and Priorities Plan 2018 outlines the life-saving support humanitarian agencies operating in DPRK are aiming to provide. Without the funding requested through this plan, agencies simply will not be able to deliver the support people urgently need.” The Needs and Priorities Plan focuses on meeting the needs of the most vulnerable people. It outlines how agencies will provide four million people with food assistance, reach more than two million people with health and nutrition services, and help improve access to safe water and sanitation for over 350,000 people. This will be achieved by supporting food production, helping farmers adapt to recurrent natural disasters, working to prevent and treat malnutrition, increasing rates of immunization, and ensuring more people have access to safe water and sanitation facilities. Mr Mishra said, “Humanitarian assistance in DPRK is improving the lives of millions of vulnerable people. Last year, humanitarian agencies in DPRK reached more than six million people with aid including providing two million people with food, vaccinating 335,000 children and providing four million people with access to healthcare. “But let us be clear, despite these achievements, humanitarian needs across the country remain high and humanitarian programmes are vital. Yet, without adequate funding, agencies will be forced to scale-down their life-saving work, with serious impacts on the lives of ordinary people.” The Needs and Priorities Plan 2018 is available online https://reliefweb.int/report/democratic-peoples-republickorea/dpr-korea-...

• Democratic People's Republic of Korea [FAO country brief]
  Reference Date: 24-January-2018 FOOD SECURITY SNAPSHOT Favourable weather conditions at start of 2017/18 winter cropping season Main season cereal production in 2017 estimated at below-average level Cereal import requirements in 2017/18 forecast at above-average level [Agriculture] [Food supply]

• CFK Team Allowed to Return to DPRK to Continue Humanitarian Engagement
  Despite the initiation of a travel ban on American citizens that took effect on September 1, 2017, a Christian Friends of Korea team received special permission and humanitarian passports from the US government and DPRK visa approval allowing for our return to DPRK from October 17 – Nov 4, 2017. A CFK team including 10 Americans, 2 Australians and 1 dual Russian/US citizen made our fourth and last planned visit for 2017. We were greeted at the airport by familiar immigration and customs officials, and warmly welcomed by our local colleagues. We were grateful to have a very productive and largely uneventful visit despite extreme tensions in the region. [Aid] [Travel ban]

• Conservative opposition prevents promised delivery of South Korean aid to North Korea
  Posted on : Nov.20,2017 16:56 KST Modified on : Nov.20,2017 16:56 KST North Korean children in Pyongyang receive UNICEF food distribution in May 2013. (Hankyoreh Archive Photo) The assistance had been slated for vulnerable groups suffering from malnourishment Two months after the South Korean government announced it would resume humanitarian aid to North Korea through international organizations (which had been suspended by previous president Park Geun-hye), it has failed to carry out this plan. This is a baffling delay, observers say, given the emphasis placed on the urgency of providing aid to vulnerable groups in North Korea, such as young children and pregnant women, when the government announced its plan to resume aid to the North this past September. [Aid weapon] [Conservatives]

• Humanitarian aid to North Korea falling
  By Choi Ha-young International humanitarian aid to North Korea has been falling in recent years mainly due to tension over its nuclear program. According to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, North Korea received only $33.9 million in humanitarian aid this year, which is less than 30 percent of the U. N's yearly goal of $113.5 million. This is mainly due to reduced aid from the United States and the European Union. The U.S. provided only $1 million in humanitarian aid to the North, which is only 0.03 percent of its total aid worth $4.14 billion to the international community. The EU has not provided any aid to North Korea this year. Before the North accelerated its nuclear program, international society was relatively generous to the totalitarian state. In 2012, when its leader Kim Jong-un inherited power, $139 million was given to Pyongyang. The amount has been on a downturn since. Last year, the North received only $37.9 million in aid, 26.7 percent of the U.N. target. Meanwhile, the Moon Jae-in administration of South Korea plans to provide $8 million in humanitarian aid. The decision made last month is in line with Moon's faith that aid for the North's healthcare and medical programs should not be affected by politics. The government said aid will be delivered via the World Food Program and the United Nations Children's Fund, but the specific date of provision has not been confirmed. [Aid weapon]

• Caritas building nursing homes in N. Korea: RFA
  By Yonhap Published : Sept 26, 2017 - 09:49 Updated : Sept 26, 2017 - 09:49 An international Catholic charity group is building nursing homes in two North Korean towns despite mounting international sanctions on the country's nuclear and missile programs, a US broadcaster reported Tuesday. Caritas Internationalis has decided to build nursing homes in Hamhung and Kowon in South Hamkyong Province, as facilities for old people there are far from enough, Radio Free Asia reported, citing the aid group. This undated file photo shows a gym at a nursing home in Pyongyang. (Yonhap) Construction work began this summer, and Caritas officials have visited the construction sites, the broadcaster said. Headquartered in Germany, the relief organization is also building greenhouses across the North to provide vegetables to patients, according to the broadcaster. (Yonhap)
• Cabinet OKs US$8 Million Humanitarian Aid to N.Korea
  By Lee Yong-soo, Kim Myong-song September 22, 2017 12:30 The government on Thursday approved a proposal to give US$8 million in aid to North Korean mothers and children through international organizations. But it did not set a date for the payment. "The government will decide on the timing after watching the development of the inter-Korean situation and taking other factors into account," the Unification Ministry said in a statement. [Aid weapon]
• Humanitarian aid to North may be delayed due to political situation
  Posted on : Sep.21,2017 17:35 KST Modified on : Sep.21,2017 17:35 KST Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-hwa takes a souvenir photo with UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake after presenting him with two Winter Olympics mascots on Sept. 19. (Provided by the Foreign Ministry) Foreign Minister Kang’s remarks hint that attitude of the Moon administration has shifted South Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs Kang Kyung-wha said on Sept. 19 that a decision on the timeline of humanitarian aid to North Korea would be “based on a comprehensive consideration of the situation, including current inter-Korean relations and North Korea’s nuclear and missile provocations,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported on Sept. 20. Kang, who is currently in New York to attend the 72nd UN General Assembly, made the remarks while meeting that day with UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake. “It is also our administration’s basic position that humanitarian aid to North Korea should be considered separately from the political situation,” she said beforehand. [Aid weapon]
• Seoul to Give US$8 Million in Aid to N.Korea
  By Lee Yong-soo September 15, 2017 11:28 The Unification Ministry on Thursday said the government is eying a US$8 million humanitarian aid package for North Korea through international organizations. Ministry spokesman Baek Tae-hyun said the aid would consist of $4.5 million to help the World Food Programme provide nutritional support to North Korea's children and pregnant women and $3.5 million worth of medicine and vaccines through UNICEF. A meeting on inter-Korean cooperation next Thursday is expected to finalize the decision. Activists wave as a container of aid to North Korea is being shipped from a port in Incheon on March 12, 2014 (file photo). The Park Geun-hye administration also gave aid to North Korea through international organizations but halted it after the North's fourth nuclear test in January 2016. The last time South Korea gave indirect aid to North Korea was $800,000 through the UN Population Fund in December 2015. A Cheong Wa Dae official said the aid was part of Moon's policy of pursuing humanitarian assistance to North Korea separately from political concerns. But the decision is awkwardly timed since it comes just two days after the UN Security Council unanimously agreed tougher sanctions against North Korea as the regime launched yet another missile over Japan early Friday morning. Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga expressed dismay, saying that this is not the time to provide aid, but to increase pressure. "A resolution that carries strict sanctions against the communist regime has been adopted unanimously at the UN Security Council meeting. It is important to keep away from actions that can weaken the international efforts," he said. [Aid weapon]
• South Korean government to discuss resumption of humanitarian aid to North Korea
  Posted on : Sep.15,2017 18:58 KST Modified on : Sep.15,2017 18:58 KST North Korean children in Pyongyang receive UNICEF food distribution in May 2013. (Hankyoreh Archive Photo) Ministry of Unification will evaluate plans for providing up to US $8 million in aid The South Korean government plans to pursue the resumption of humanitarian aid to North Korea through international organizations, which was suspended during the preceding Park Geun-hye administration. The plan means that Seoul intends to provide humanitarian support to children, women, and other vulnerable North Koreans even as it joins in intensified international sanctions after the North’s recent nuclear and missile provocations.

• Christian Friends of Korea July 2017 Newsletter
  

• Gov't Allows Charity to Send Medicines to N.Korea
  By Kim Myong-song June 28, 2017 12:04 The Unification Ministry has approved the Eugene Bell Foundation's application to send W1.9 billion worth of medicines for tuberculosis and materials to build hospital wards to North Korea, the ministry said Tuesday (US$1=W1,137). The foundation is dedicated to treating multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in the North. It is the first approval of humanitarian assistance to the North by the Moon Jae-in administration. The goods will be sent to Nampo port on a Chinese ship next month. Foundation chair Stephen Linton and other staff are expected to visit the North with the shipment, but the ministry said they require no approval from it because they are all foreign nationals. The previous administration also approved shipments of medicines by the foundation to the North but banned cargoes of building materials under 2010 sanctions for fear that they could be diverted to the military. [Diversion] [Canard]
• British charity to provide 40 tons of flour for bread to N. Korea next week: report
  2017/06/13 03:47 SEOUL, June 13 (Yonhap) -- A British relief group will make a six-day visit to North Korea next week to provide 40 tons of flour for bread to be consumed by the North's children, Voice of America reported Tuesday. George Rhee, leader of the London-based Love North Korean Children and a Briton of Korean descent, said in a recent message on his Facebook account that the group's planned visit to Pyongyang has been approved after a long wait, adding the visit is scheduled to begin next Monday.
• N. Korea rejects S. Korean aid provider's inter-Korean exchanges, citing sanctions
  Posted : 2017-06-05 17:12 Updated : 2017-06-05 17:12 A South Korean civic group said Monday that it will delay shipments of aid supplies to North Korea and its plan to visit North Korea as Pyongyang took issue with U.N. sanctions against the North. The Korean Sharing Movement is preparing to send pesticide and medical supplies to fight Malaria to North Korea as the government has decided to flexibly resume inter-Korean exchanges. Kang Young-sik, the secretary-general of the group, said that Pyongyang took issue with the South Korean government's attitude toward the latest adoption of U.N. sanctions against the North. "We've decided to put off our plans to deliver the supplies' shipments and to visit North Korea for cooperation," Kang said. Last Friday, the U.N. Security Council voted unanimously to sanction more North Korean officials and entities, including a military unit handling ballistic missiles, after the North carried out a series of defiant missile tests. (Yonhap) [Aid] [Sanctions]
• German aid agency starts new project in N. Korea
  Posted : 2017-05-31 10:42 Updated : 2017-05-31 10:42 A private German aid agency has started a new project to help North Koreans, especially farmers, in the country's western provinces, a U.S. broadcaster said Wednesday. Welthungerhilfe (World Hunger Aid) has secured a US$1.45 million fund necessary for the project from the European Union, Voice of America said, citing the agency's spokeswoman Simone Pott. The core of the project is to teach residents in Pyongan and Hwanghae Provinces to make compost, manage weeds and increase livestock production, as well as to improve sanitation and nutrition, the broadcaster said.

• Humanitarian Group to Travel to N.Korea Next Month
  May 25, 2017 11:55 A civilian group of both progressive and conservative NGO officials will travel to North Korea next month. A Cheong Wa Dae official said Wednesday that the Korean Sharing Movement applied for permission to visit North Korea, and Chung Eui-yong, the head of the Cheong Wa Dae security team, is minded to approve the request. Once the Unification Ministry authorizes the trip, they will be joined by a 17-member delegation led by Minjoo Party lawmaker Won Hye-young and People's Party lawmaker Chung Jung-bae on June 10. The group will be staying in North Korea for four days to deliver medicine, nutritional supplements and clothes. "The Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye administrations said they would not prohibit humanitarian support for the North, but actual aid did shrink," Won told the Chosun Ilbo. [Aid]
• Humanitarian aid to N. Korea should be unconditional: FM nominee
  Posted : 2017-05-25 16:02 Updated : 2017-05-25 16:52 Foreign Minister nominee Kang Kyung-wha speaks to reporters upon her arrival at Incheon International Airport, Thursday. / Yonhap By Yi Whan-woo Kang Kyung-wha, President Moon Jae-in's pick for foreign minister, said Thursday humanitarian aid to North Korea should come with no strings attached. Still, she called for taking "stern measures" against Pyongyang if it continues with its military provocations. Her view is in line with Moon's pursuit of sanctions and dialogue simultaneously in resolving the North Korean nuclear crisis. "Humanitarian aid for those who suffer is something that is related to universal values and should be dealt with separately from political considerations," Kang told reporters upon her arrival at Incheon International Airport. "This is also a principle of the U.N. and I think we should act accordingly." Kang, who has been working at the United Nations for the last decade, said an "in-depth review" should come in advance before determining countermeasures on North Korea's ballistic missile tests. However, she said "more powerful sanctions" will be needed if there are any additional provocations. Diplomatic sources speculated her belief on North Korea policy is influenced by her experience at the U.N. She was serving as senior policy adviser to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres when Moon nominated her as his first foreign minister, Sunday. She also built her U.N. career as the assistant secretary-general at the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, deputy high commissioner for the Human Rights Office of the High Commission and chairwoman of the Commission on the Status of Women. "Kang's remark reflects the U.N. Security Council's discussion over North Korea's latest missile tests on May 14 and 21," a source said. "It is also in line with Moon's call for stern measures on Pyongyang while seeking to resume inter-Korean dialogue at the same time." Kang will be subject to a National Assembly confirmation hearing. Although it has condemned North Korea's latest missile launches, the Moon administration has been moving toward resuming civilian exchanges between the two Koreas. On Wednesday, a Cheong Wa Dae official said National Security Office chief Chung Ui-yong is considering whether to allow a group of human rights activists in Seoul to visit Pyongyang. "Chung appears to be positive about the plan," the official said. If allowed, a 17-member delegation will visit North Korea, June 10, to discuss relevant issues with its counterpart. The delegates will include legislators Won Hye-young of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea and Chung Jung-bae of the People's Party. [SK-NK aid] [Aid weapon]
• Christian Friends of Korea April Newsletter
  CFK Team Completes First Visit for 2017

• UN report: Sanctions disrupt humanitarian aid to North Korea
  By Eric Talmadge - 3/23/17 11:29 PM TOKYO — International sanctions on North Korea are taking a serious toll on humanitarian aid activities, according to a United Nations-led report. The report issued this week by the U.N.’s senior resident official in Pyongyang said sanctions are inadvertently hindering legitimate operations on the ground and have indirectly contributed to a “radical decline” in donations it said are badly needed by millions of North Korean women and children. It said “chronic food insecurity, early childhood malnutrition and nutrition insecurity” continue to be widespread in the North, which it noted ranked 98th out of 118 countries in the 2016 Global Hunger Index. More than 10 million people — or about 41 percent of the North Korean population — are undernourished, it said. To meet the “urgent needs of the most vulnerable,” it called for $114 million in donations. That could be a hard sell, no matter how dire the need. Critics have long argued that aid to the North in effect serves to prop up the government by allowing it to focus more of its limited resources on building nuclear weapons, funding the country’ million-man army or enriching the ruling elite, rather than spending on the segments of its population that are in the most need. [Sanctions] [Defense] [Spin]
  • DPR Korea: Needs and Priorities 2017
    United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), ReliefWeb
    The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) is in the midst of a protracted, entrenched humanitarian situation largely forgotten or overlooked by the rest of the world. An estimated 18 million people are dependent on Government food rations while 10.5 million people are believed to be undernourished. A lack of access to basic services including water and sanitation, as well as a weak health infrastructure further threaten the well-being of the population, particularly young children and pregnant and breastfeeding women. The humanitarian situation in DPRK is further exacerbated by frequent natural disasters, especially floods and drought, with an estimated 5.6 million people in DPRK affected by 04 natural disasters between 2004 and 2015. These frequent disasters compound people's vulnerabilities and need for humanitarian assistance. The most recent large-scale natural disaster took place in August 2016 when 600,000 people were affected and 69,000 people displaced by severe flooding in North Hamgyong Province. The floods also submerged agricultural land, damaged water systems, schools and health facilities. Humanitarian partners in DPRK have been working to bring relief to the most vulnerable populations while also strengthening resilience to future natural disasters. The 2017 Needs and Priorities document provides a strategic overview of the primary needs and joint response as identified by the Humanitarian Country Team (HCT) in DPRK, with a particular focus on the needs of the most vulnerable including children, and pregnant and breastfeeding women. Overall, the international community in DPRK is requesting US$114m in order to respond to the most urgent Food Security, Health, Nutrition, and Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) needs. Thirteen organizations have been involved in the development of the document including five UN agencies, seven international NGOs, and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). I would like to thank the donors who have remained steadfast in their support of humanitarian assistance in DPRK. External assistance plays a vital role in safeguarding the health and well-being of millions of people; however, securing funds for humanitarian programmes in DPRK has historically been very challenging. And yet without this vital support, agencies will be forced to scale down life-saving activities, with detrimental impacts for the most vulnerable and needy population in the country. I appeal to donors not to let political considerations get in the way of providing continued support
    Tapan Mishra Resident Coordinator

• Assessing Agricultural Conditions in North Korea: A Satellite Imagery Case Study
  By Andy Dinville 05 January 2017 The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) continues to experience seasonal climate variations, drought conditions that greatly put its food production and supply at risk. Over the past several years, though food production remains generally higher compared to production output in the early 2000s, dry-weather patterns have negatively affected crop production by delaying planting and impacting crop growth during the growing seasons. The 2016 agricultural production year was no exception. Though the primary production areas of southwestern North Korea were doing well early, the northeastern provinces experienced drier conditions. As described by Randall Ireson last year, North Korean agricultural production capabilities may have become more adaptive to localized, yearly weather variations. Satellite imagery is used by many organizations to assess global crop conditions as part of ongoing monitoring capabilities. For North Korea, satellite imagery can help identify indications of improved agricultural production management by monitoring crop conditions, but can also provide early indications of possible problems as well as insights into the North’s growing season challenges and the resiliency of the crop in response. [Agriculture] [Food security] [Satellite]

• DRR Korea: Needs and Priorities
  The protracted humanitarian situation in the DPR Korea is largely forgotten on the global agenda. The country continues to suffer from food insecurity as well as limited access to health and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), resulting in chronic malnutrition and poor health outcomes. An estimated 18 million people are in need of some form of humanitarian assistance. [Food insecurity] [UNUS]
• North Korea Sanctions Delay Lifesaving Medical Aid
  December 22, 2016 3:59 AM Brian Padden SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA — A humanitarian organization that treats deadly multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in North Korea is being impeded by delays because of heighten inter-Korean tensions and sanctions imposed on the Kim Jong Un government for its ongoing nuclear and ballistic missile development programs. In addition to the two rounds of United Nations sanctions imposed on North Korea this year, South Korea issued tougher unilateral sanctions in March, blocking virtually all shipments to the North, with no exception made for humanitarian assistance. Seoul also cut off all lines of communication with Pyongyang earlier in the year. [Sanctions] [Health]
• DPRK: Rumours, Rations and Refugees
  Konstantin Asmolov
  I would like to start another essay about the economic situation in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea with the chart published in open access by the Yonhap news agency. It is official information showing population growth in the North and South Korea. It clearly shows that at the end of the 1990s, the population of the DPRK was not in a demographic slump, which would have occurred if 2 million people had really died from hunger in the country. It is from this angle that one should consider a number of facts and figures, which are currently being touted by anti-North Korean propaganda that continues to give the outside world the impression that the DPRK is a country with a collapsed economy, threatened with hunger and upcoming social protests. For example, on June 13, referring to the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), the Voice of America radio station announced that the food shortage in North Korea would amount to 665 thousand tons in 2016: with imports and external aid, North Korea should compensate for 694 thousand tons of food but Pyongyang will only be capable of providing 29 thousand tons. According to the Ministry of Unification of the Republic of Korea, this is due to the fact that in the 2016 fiscal year, the amount of food consumed in the North Korea amounted to 5 million 495 thousand tons, but the production capacity was only 4 million 801 thousand tons. [Food] [Agriculture] [Statistics] [Canard]
• Christian Friends of Korea
  Newsletter December 2016

• N.Korea Completes 12,000 Homes for Flood Victims
  November 22, 2016 13:21 Some 12,000 North Korean families have moved into newly built homes in flood-ravaged North Hamgyong Province, the North's official Korean Central News Agency said Monday. The Unification Ministry here estimates that around 15,000 homes were destroyed in the recent floods in the North and some 37,700 households were affected by the disaster. . North Koreans gather near newly built houses in flood-damaged North Hamgyong Province in this picture published by the [North] Korean Central News Agency on Monday. /Yonhap But the regime also found the money and manpower to make life more agreeable for leader Kim Jong-un. A private road is being built in the province so Kim can get to his summer homes there, according to a source. The homes are in Kyongsong, which is famous for its hot springs. [Floods]
• The Challenge of Sharing on the Korean Peninsula
  By Erich Weingartner 14 November 2016 Editor’s note: In 1995, devastating floods compounded an already dire economic downturn in North Korea due to the collapse of the Soviet Union and the resulting energy crisis. After negotiating quietly with Japan and South Korea for emergency food shipments, the DPRK government issued a general call for international food aid in the fall of that year. The World Food Programme (WFP) issued its first appeal for food contributions and opened a small office in Pyongyang in 1996. The first major contributions were received by NGO donors, followed by more massive bilateral and multilateral food aid. Therefore, 2016 is considered the 20th anniversary of humanitarian assistance to North Korea, even though in-country programs by NGOs would follow a year later. An office for NGOs within the WFP Pyongyang operation (Food Aid Liaison Unit or FALU) was opened in spring 1997. European NGO programs under the European Union umbrella began in the fall of 1997. Inter-Korean handshake It has now been 20 years since the first time that a serious effort was undertaken to provide humanitarian aid to North Korea—an anniversary unlikely to be celebrated by many. Of the numerous aid agencies that eagerly sought to establish a humanitarian foothold in the DPRK in 1996, few have made any effort to respond to this summer’s flood aid appeal.[1] Of course, much has changed since widespread famine elicited the world’s altruistic sympathy two decades ago; North Korea’s defiance of international human rights campaigns and sanctions aimed at its nuclear weapons and missile programs has eroded the world’s willingness to extend such sympathy. Inter-Korean relations have deteriorated to a dangerous level, poisoning the atmosphere for any meaningful dialogue or negotiation. [WHR] [Aid weapon] [NGO]

• N.Korea Buys Record Amounts of Rice from China
  By Cho Yi-jun November 04, 2016 12:17 North Korea imported record amounts of rice from China in September, apparently to stabilize prices amid rapid hikes, Voice of America reported on Thursday. The North imported 16,000 tons of rice worth US$9.9 million, from China in September, VOA reported quoting analysis of customs data by Kwon Tae-jin of the GS&J Institute in Seoul. Over the whole first eight months the North imported only 14,000 tons of rice. The North's imports of wheat flour increased 15 times and its imports of starch more than doubled on-month in September. Meanwhile, the North also imported 772 tons of fertilizer from China in September, up 73 percent on-year. [Imports] [Floods] [Marketisation]
• [Interview] Former WHO Pyongyang project manager “North Koreans are people just like us”
  Posted on : Oct.29,2016 11:24 KST Nagi Shafik says sanctions generally don’t work, and disproportionately affect the poor and vulnerable Nagi Shafik, former project manager for the World Health Organization’s Pyongyang office Nagi Shafik, former project manager for the World Health Organization’s Pyongyang office, arrived early in the morning on Oct. 27 to hold down the fort at Busan’s Nurimaru APEC House, site of the Busan-Hankyoreh International Symposium. For eight years, Shafik was involved in humanitarian aid activities in the North Korean capital. He met with the Hankyoreh ahead of a debate that afternoon, where he was set to speak in the second session on “the UN’s role toward change in North Korea.” Shafik gave a somewhat surprising answer when asked when he had worked in Pyongyang. “I actually stayed there for just over 40 days, from late May to early July,” he said. While he is currently retired, he stayed in Pyongyang earlier this year at the WHO’s request, working with North Korean government officials to help with formulating a five-year plan for public health policy and development of vaccines for women and children. [Sanctions] [Sanctions effect] [Growth] [EWA]
• N. Korea's hunger index improves yet remains serious
  By Choi Sung-jin North Korea's hunger index has steadily improved over the past decade as the country's food situation became better but its hunger level remains "very serious." EurActiv, a European Union-specialized media outlet, made these and other points in a report based on the Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2016, released by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) on World Food Day on Oct. 16. IFPRI calculated the hunger indexes of 118 countries by comparing the proportion of people undernourished, the proportion of children under age five who suffer from wasting (low weight for height), same-aged children who suffer stunting (low height for age) and their mortality rate. According to the report, North Korea's hunger index this year is 28.6, the 21st worst among the 118 countries. [Food] [Sanctions effect]
• Even without government permission, private groups sending flood aid to North Korea
  Posted on : Oct.13,2016 17:59 KST Affected areas will soon have bitterly cold winter weather, and many people left suffering outdoors Despite the South Korean government’s refusal to allow NGOs to provide humanitarian aid to victims of flooding in North Korea, these groups are taking steps to provide aid anyway. With cold weather coming soon to affected areas in North Korea’s North Hamgyong Province, the UN and other international groups are allocating additional funding as they hurry to provide disaster relief. The Korea NGO Council for Cooperation with North Korea (KNCCK), an alliance of 54 organizations that provide aid to North Korea, announced on Oct. 12 that it was sending money to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to help North Korean flood victims. The groups are donating a total of US$187,000 in aid. The KNCCK sent the first payment of US$100,000 to the Red Cross on Oct. 12 and is planning to send the rest of the money on Oct. 18. [Floods] [Aid]
• Flooding in North Korea and South Korea’s reaction
  Konstantin Asmolov In late August-early September 2016, the north-eastern regions of North Korea suffered from floods caused by typhoon Lion Rock and heavy rains. From August 29 to September 2, the level of precipitation in the North Hamgyong Province ranged from 290 to 320 mm, which then caused the Tumen River to burst its banks. This flood is said to be the worst in the territory of the DPRK in the last 70 years. There is no information on the damage toll yet. North Korean central television reported that almost 70 thousand people were evacuated, 11,600 houses were destroyed, 180 sections of motorways and 60 bridges, as well as power supply and communication were also damaged. The Voice of America, referring to the figures from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, says that due to the heavy flooding in the city of Musan – more than 50 thousand houses were affected, and in the area of Yeonsan-gun and the town of Hoeryong – from 10 thousand to 50 thousand houses, schools and kindergartens were also seriously damaged. KBS World Radio cited witnesses saying “when visiting the affected areas, you can’t believe that people lived there before the flood.” Human victims? The Associated Press reported that 133 people were killed and 395 are missing after the floods. The Voice of America gives similar statistics -138 people killed and 400 missing, nearly 20 million houses destroyed, with 24 thousand local residents left homeless and in need for food. [Floods] [Aid weapon]
• Christian Friends of Korea October 2016 Newsletter
  A team of 12 returned to the DPRK from August 30-September 17 for work projects and to initiate a treatment program for hepatitis B patients. For the first time, hepatitis B medicine has been made available in the DPRK through our HOPE (Hepatitis B Overview and Program to trEat) project! The first 73 patients were started on drug therapy earlier this month, and we expect to start another 200-300 patients on treatment in November.

• North Korea promotes domestic response to flooding
  North Korean media shows recovery efforts, apparently sends supplies around the Peninsula by sea
  Hamish Macdonald September 27th, 2016 Food aid, daily necessities, and building materials are being sent from around North Korea to the Northeast regions of the country affected by severe flooding, according to state media on Sunday. A Korean Central Television (KCTV) report says that goods and aid originating from Northern Hwanghae Province, Sariwon, Northern Pyongan Province and Nampo are being sent to damaged areas. “Dear leader Kim Jong Un has offered the generous gifts to the victims of flood in North Hamgyeong Province,” one segment of the report says, showing stacked packages alleged to have been provided by the leadership. Goods mentioned in the report include cement, structural steel, daily necessities and food. North Korea had previously rebuilt areas damaged by flooding in 2015 and the immediate provision of building materials may indicate a similar plan is underway. While the flooding occurred in Northeastern provinces, the news report also shows a North Korean ship being loaded with cement in the port of Nampo, located on the West coast of the country. The report and those interviewed made special mention of the speed in which the ship, the Kwang Myong, was loaded and set out to deliver the cargo. According to the Rodong Sinmun, an unnamed vessel left Nampo port on September 21. “We have expedited the working process and finished the loading of cement in just a few days, while it usually takes around 10 days under the normal circumstances,” Choi Young Jun, the chief engineer of Nampo Port, was quoted as saying. [Floods]
• N. Korea media call for South's flood aid in roundabout way
  By Choi Sung-jin A North Korean propaganda machine has indirectly urged South Korea to provide aid to help ease flood damage in its northeastern region, citing the North's "wholehearted support" for the flood-stricken South more than a half century ago. "In September 1959, unprecedented rainstorms and floods swept the entire South Korea," said Naenara (Our Country), a North Korean media outlet, reporting in detail the "cabinet decision No. 60," which was adopted to provide help to recover from flood damage in the South. "The great Marshal Kim Il-sung, who is concerned about South Korean people struggling in shanties with the snow and rain, and worries about South Korean farmers even with the slight rise of rivers, has sped up the adoption of the cabinet decision No. 60 to save flood victims in the South as soon as possible," it said. [Aid weapon] [NK SK aid]
• Food prices in N. Korea's flood damaged area doubles: report
  Food prices in North Korea's northeastern region, which has been hit by devastating floods, have doubled due to the slow pace of recovery and poor distribution networks, U.S.-based media Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported Thursday. Citing a report by Japanese media outlet Asia Press, the RFA said the country's northern cities of Hoeryong and Namyang are experiencing a spike in rice and corn prices which soared to 8,000 won ($7.24) and 2,000 won per kilogram, respectively, from 4,300 won and 1,000 won before the worst-ever floods in decades. The flooding caused severe property damage with many people being reported dead or missing. The Japanese media said there is a likelihood that other commodity prices will likely soar following rice. Jiro Ishimaru, who heads the Osaka office of Japan's Asia Press, told the RFA that rice prices rose rapidly as the transportation situation in the flood-damaged area is very serious, with the railroads and overland routes being almost blocked. The official said the lack of transportation means is leading to poor distribution of food and commodities. Ishimaru, in addition, warned that water shortage and sanitary problems will also follow due to a shortage of personnel equipment needed to speed up recovery. (Yonhap) [Floods] [Marketisation]
• With government still refusing, civil society pushing for flood aid to N. Korea
  Posted on : Sep.21,2016 11:49 KST An image from North Korea’s Korean Central Television from Sep. 16, showing residents working to repair the severe flood damage in North Hamgyong Province. KCNA reported hundreds of people have been affected, including deaths and missing, and damage to buildings. (Yonhap News) International organizations and grassroots campaigns are filling gap to assist devastated areas of North Hamgyong and Yanggang Provinces Members of the public are moving to provide direct aid to North Koreans affected by floods that have claimed 138 lives and left more than 400 missing. Some 68,000 North Koreans have reportedly have been affected by torrential rains that fell on parts of North Hamgyong and Yanggang Provinces last month due to Typhoon Lionrock. Damages have been severe, with homes and farmland inundated and roads and railways left in a state of collapse. With winter temperatures in North Hamgyong Province falling as low as 25 degrees below zero, those left without homes appear likely to face heavier damages once the cold arrives. North Korea responded by taking the unusual step of showing scenes of damage to the international community and declaring the flooding “the largest disaster since Liberation.” The International Committee of the Red Cross offered emergency relief by providing US$520,000, while the UN World Food Programme moved on Sept. 13 to provide seven days’ worth of biscuits and other emergency relief rations to 150,000 North Koreans. But the situation is expected to deteriorate further, with 600,000 people currently lacking drinking water and the food shortage poised to worsen over the winter. The UN has begun raising funds from the international community to meet the US$28.2 million it sees as necessary to provide food aid and temporary shelter to 143,000 residents of the North Hamgyong Province region. [Aid weapon]
• Humanitarian Community calls for US$28.2 million in response to DPR Korea floods
  19 September 2016 (Pyongyang): Humanitarian agencies in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) urgently need US$28.2 million to assist people affected by flooding that hit the northeast of the country earlier this month. The Emergency Response Plan released today by the Humanitarian Country Team in DPRK outlines the support UN agencies and international NGOs are aiming to provide 600,000 people in the six most affected counties in North Hamgyong Province over the next six months. The plan focuses on lifesaving activities in shelter, food and agriculture, health, nutrition, water, sanitation and hygiene, and education. Following the flooding that killed 138 people, 400 people remain missing, and at least 140,000 people remain in immediate need of assistance, including 69,000 people who have been forced to leave their homes. An estimated 30,000 houses were damaged in the disaster, 62 per cent of which have been completed destroyed [Floods]
• [Analysis] Park government still denying humanitarian aid to flood-stricken North Korea
  Posted on : Sep.20,2016 16:13 KST The first train on the route from Komusan Station since recent flooding hit and tracks were repaired, arrives at Musan Station in North Korea’s North Hamgyong Province, on Sep. 17, in a photo from the Sep. 19 edition of the Rodong Sinmun newspaper. (Yonhap News) Stubborn refusal goes against international standards on aid provision, and defies history of inter-Korean cooperation The Park Geun-hye administration refuses to budge in its position on humanitarian aid to North Korea in the wake of what Pyongyang is calling the most extreme disaster since Liberation in the flood-ravaged northern region of North Hamgyong Province. While the rest of the international community scrambles to reach out a hand through UN bodies at various levels in North Korea, Seoul has clearly stated its de facto refusal to provide aid, citing leader Kim Jong-un’s “responsibility” for a recent fifth nuclear test. The response runs counter not only to the international community’s principles on human rights - which place humanitarian aid out of bounds for sanctions - but also the Park administration’s own past approach. A growing number of critics from across society are arguing that Seoul should learn from the policies of past administrations, which regarded humanitarian aid as pump-priming to improve inter-Korean relations, as well as leverage for promoting emotional sympathies with reunification and overcoming Korea’s division. Responding to a question on Seoul’s policies on flood aid to North Korea during a regular briefing on Sept. 19, Unification Ministry spokesperson Jeong Joon-hee said any aid “must be preceded by an examination of the relief’s nature and the damage situation, with a decision based on full consideration of the need for emergency relief, transparency, and North Korea‘s requests.” The message was a reiteration of Seoul’s previous policy approach. The problem was what came next. [Aid weapon]
• Devastating floods in North Korea could spur change from int’l sanctions
  Posted on : Sep.19,2016 18:01 KST UN and South Korean NGOs trying to provide humanitarian aid to affected areas While the international community had seemed bent on toughening sanctions against North Korea after its fifth nuclear test, there are indications that this mood is shifting following reports about severe flooding in the northern part of North Korea’s North Hamgyong Province. Thirteen UN-affiliated humanitarian organizations operating in North Korea have published a jointly drafted report about the situation on the ground and are appealing to the international community for emergency aid. South Korean groups dedicated to providing humanitarian aid to North Korea have also launched a campaign to raise money to provide relief to the victims of the flooding and have asked for permission to contact North Korea to get a better picture of what is happening there. Thus far, the South Korean government has made no response, citing a lack of an official request for aid from North Korea. It remains to be seen whether these developments will cause Seoul to change its stance [Floods] [SK NK policy]
• Opposition demands N. Korea flood aid
  By Kang Seung-woo Opposition parties are increasing calls for the government to provide aid to flood-stricken North Korea. They claim the government should prioritize humanitarian needs of North Koreans, but the administration remains adamant against providing aid, citing the international community's move toward fresh sanctions for the North's fifth nuclear test, Sept. 9. Severe flooding in the country's northernmost province of North Hamgyong Province ? affected by the heaviest rains since 1945 ? has left 138 people dead, 400 missing and at least 140,000 in immediate need of assistance, including 69,000 who have been forced to leave their homes, according to the United Nations. [Floods]
• Humanitarian Community calls for US$28.2 million in response to DPR Korea floods
  Report from UN Resident Coordinator for DPR Korea Published on 19 Sep 2016 19 September 2016 (Pyongyang): Humanitarian agencies in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) urgently need US$28.2 million to assist people affected by flooding that hit the northeast of the country earlier this month. The Emergency Response Plan released today by the Humanitarian Country Team in DPRK outlines the support UN agencies and international NGOs are aiming to provide 600,000 people in the six most affected counties in North Hamgyong Province over the next six months. The plan focuses on lifesaving activities in shelter, food and agriculture, health, nutrition, water, sanitation and hygiene, and education. Following the flooding that killed 138 people, 400 people remain missing, and at least 140,000 people remain in immediate need of assistance, including 69,000 people who have been forced to leave their homes. An estimated 30,000 houses were damaged in the disaster, 62 per cent of which have been completed destroyed. [Floods]
• Democratic People’s Republic of Korea - Flood Emergency Response Plan (September 2016 – February 2017)
  Report from UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, UN Country Team in DPRK, UN Resident Coordinator for DPR Korea Published on 19 Sep 2016 Funding The HCT is seeking US$28.2 million to provide immediate humanitarian assistance to 600,000 people in food security, nutrition, shelter, health, and water, sanitation and hygiene for the next six months. Situation Overview The remnants of Typhoon Lionrock passed DPRK on 29 August 2016, merging with a low pressure front. Over the three days, 208 mm of rain deluged Hoeryong City. Between 30-31 August, the Tumen River rose 6-12 metres, breaking its banks. As of 16 September, the Government has confirmed that 138 people have been killed and another 400 people remain missing. Based on official figures and assessment findings, around 69,000 people remain displaced and at least 140,000 people are severely affected, while as many as 600,000 people need some form of assistance. Around 30,000 houses have been damaged, 62 per cent of which have been completely destroyed. A further 16,400 buildings, including schools, nurseries and health clinics have been damaged. More than 27,000 hectares of arable land has been inundated. Affected communities are dependent on a few hand pumps and dug wells, which are likely to be contaminated by the floodwaters. [Floods]
• S. Korea unlikely to help N. Korea recover from flood damage
  South Korea said Monday that there is not much possibility that it will provide assistance to North Korea to help it recover from damage caused by recent floods given the high tensions following Pyongyang's nuclear test. North Korea's northeastern region is struggling to cope with what is being called its worst-ever floods since the country's liberation from Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule. Heavy rains are believed to have left more than 130 people dead and over 400 missing. South Korea's unification ministry said that North Korea has not formally asked the South to help it cope with the latest flood damage, adding that it is not likely to make a request for assistance. "Even if North Korea appeals for help, we don't think the possibility is high for assistance to be given under the current situation," Jeong Joon-hee, ministry spokesman, told a regular press briefing. [Aid weapon]
• N.Korea Reeling from Flood Damage
  North Koreans sit on a roof waiting to be rescued in Hoeryong, North Hamgyong Province in this photo provided by a North Korean source. North Koreans sit on a roof waiting to be rescued in Hoeryong, North Hamgyong Province in this photo provided by a North Korean source. Flooding in the North Korean province of North Hamgyong bordering China early this month left 138 people dead and about 400 others missing while thousands lost their homes. The UN resident coordinator in Pyongyang last Friday said the floods were the most damaging in recent years, according to VOA. "About 140,000 people are described as being in urgent need, having lost their homes and belongings, with some 600,000 others affected by a loss of drinking water," VOA added.
• WFP issues emergency aid to over 140,000 North Korean flood victims
  UN body appeals for DPRK programme support amid nuclear test fallout, regional tensions Hamish Macdonald September 13th, 2016 The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has provided food assistance to over 140,000 North Koreans affected by recent flooding in the northeast of the country, according to a press release on Tuesday. Flooding and heavy rains caused by a typhoon in late August have continued into September, further exacerbating the number of civilians displaced and without basic provisions. “To meet food needs, WFP immediately distributed an emergency food ration of fortified biscuits, for seven days, and soybeans, enough for 30 days, to reach 44,000 people,” the WFP press release read. “Following an inter-agency assessment of the affected areas, WFP rapidly distributed the same emergency ration to reach an additional 96,000 people,” it added. The WFP also said it was concerned about the “continued vulnerability” of the affected population due to the approaching winter and food shortages in the country. “The North of the country will shortly see the onset of a typically severe winter when temperatures can plunge below -25° C. These families need continued support to get through the worst of the winter,” the press release quoted Darlene Tymo, the WFP’s Representative and Country Director in DPRK, as saying. North Korea state media and UN bodies have been continually updating the numbers of killed, displaced and affected since the flooding began. On September 11 the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) published figures that put the death toll at 133, while it said that up to 107,000 had been displaced so far. [Floods] [WFP]
• North Korea floods a 'major, complex disaster', Red Cross says
  Updated Tue at 9:51am UNICEF DPRK handout showing children standing among building debris near flooding on the Tumen river in Hoeryong, in North Korea's North Hamyong Province North Korea is experiencing a "major and complex disaster", according to the Red Cross, after floods killed scores of people and left more than 100,000 homeless and in need of urgent help. The charity said rescue workers were struggling to reach stricken communities in the country's far north, where thousands have been left homeless and the risk of disease is looming. "From what we saw, it is clear that this is a very major and complex disaster," head of the Pyongyang office of the International Federation of the Red Cross, Chris Staines, said after visiting the affected areas. At least 133 people are known to have died after torrential rains triggered massive floods that tore through villages, devastating entire communities and washing away buildings. Hundreds more are missing and 140,000 people are in urgent need of food and shelter. [Floods]
• North Korea defied world with nuclear test. Now it seeks aid for flood disaster.
  China reportedly rescued North Koreans from flooded village Three North Koreans were rescued by China from their flooded village, Chinese state media reported September 2. (Reuters) By Anna Fifield September 12 at 10:56 AM TOKYO — Floods that devastated North Korea last month are turning out to be worse than initially feared, with more than 100,000 people left homeless, according to aid workers who visited the area last week. That puts Pyongyang in the inconvenient position of having to turn to the international community for help — at the same time North Korea is facing global condemnation after its nuclear test last week. “The effects of this flooding will be even more dramatic and devastating than initially thought,” said Chris Staines, the head of the Pyongyang office of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. “The people there are in a very desperate situation.” Staines was part of a group of 22 international and local staffers from 13 aid agencies stationed in Pyongyang who last week visited the northern city of Hoeryong, across the Tumen River from China. [Aid weapon]
• What is behind the Reduction in the Ration Allowance in North Korea?
  Konstantin Asmolov We have written several times about the “inevitable famine in North Korea” but, regrettably, this discussion arises again and again. This time, the news concerns a sharp reduction in the state ration. As the Voice of America reported on August 19, with reference to the report of the UN World Food Program (WFP) published on August 1, 2016, the daily ration allowance in North Korea amounted to 300 grams per person – half of the UN recommended rate. This indicator is much lower than the 573 grams initially planned by the North Korean authorities, and by 17% less than in Q2 (from April to June, the daily ration allowance was 360 grams). It is reported that the level of food aid from the WFP to North Korea in July 2016 was the lowest recorded in the last 5 years. In particular, 457 thousand North Korean citizens from disadvantaged social classes received 379 tons of food aid. That means, each person got only 27 grams a day. This is 80% less than in June. http://journal-neo.org/2016/08/31/what-is-behind-the-reduction-in-the-ration-allowance-in-north-korea/ [Food security] [Marketisation] [PDS]

• Study: Since famine of mid-1990s, public health much improved in North Korea
  Posted on : Aug.21,2016 08:34 KST Food security no longer an emergency issue, and strides made regarding vaccine preventable diseases Hazel Smith, a professor at the University of Central Lancashire in the United Kingdom Nutrition and public health among North Koreans have improved substantially since the severe famine and economic woes of the 1990s, a new study shows. But three out of ten North Koreans were found to still suffer from malnutrition. The findings were part of “Nutrition and Health in North Korea: What's New, What's Changed and Why It Matters,” a paper by Hazel Smith, a professor at the University of Central Lancashire in the United Kingdom, published by the Korea Development Institute in the Aug. 18 edition of its KDI Review of the North Korean Economy. In the paper, Smith notes that the North Korean food rationing system collapsed and international aid decreased in the mid-1990s, but that the public health situation has improved since then, with a lower level of nutritional disorders than in other low-income countries. [Health] [Sanctions]
• UNICEF Gives Nutrition Aid to N.Korean Children
  UNICEF has been giving nutrition aid to some 1.7 million children in North Korea since January, Radio Free Asia reported on Tuesday. UNICEF said it supplied supplements, vitamins and emergency medical supplies worth US$2.4 million to some 20,000 severely malnourished children and vitamins to about 1.55 million. The organization also spent $1.52 million giving vaccine shots to about 168,000 children and delivering emergency medical supplies. Some 250,000 North Koreans now have clean water through a water and sewage improvement project that cost about $200,000, the report says. Eleven million North Koreans including six million children are thought to suffer from malnutrition and related diseases. And nearly half of North Koreans need food support, medical supplies and clean water. The report says $18 million is needed to implement aid projects for the North this year but UNICEF managed to raise a mere $4 million in the first half of this year.

• N.Korean Mothers Suffer Serious Malnutrition
  Only two in every 100 North Korean women of childbearing age have milk to drink more than once a day, and fewer than eight percent eat eggs every day, according to a study by researchers at Seoul National University. The findings suggest terrifying levels of malnutrition in the isolated country, where the regime is pouring most of its resources into arms development. SNU researchers published the study in the journal of the Korean Society of Community Nutrition. In South Korea, 60.9 percent of South Korean women between 20 and 49 eat at least an egg a day, compared to just 7.7 percent of North Korean women. While about half of South Korean women consume milk and dairy products every day, in North Korea the figure is more than 20 times smaller at 2.4 percent. Only 21.3 percent of North Korean women eat meat or fish every day. As a result an estimated 31.2 percent of North Korean women suffer from anemia. "The first 100 days after pregnancy determine the physical development of a child," said Prof. Yoon Ji-hyun at SNU. "It's highly likely that North Korean children who don't get sufficient nutrition from the fetal stage will suffer from poor growth later." This study was based on a nutrition assessment report on North Korea compiled by UNICEF, the UN World Food Programme and the World Health Organization in 2012 compared with a national health and nutrition survey in South Korea. SNU plans to develop powdered nutritional supplements to send to the North. [Malnutrition] [Agency] [Sanctions] [Hypocrisy]

• Third of N. Korean children don't get enough food
  More than 30 percent of North Korean children in Yanggang Province suffer from malnutrition. / Yonhap By Lee Jin-a More than 30 percent of children in Yanggang Province, North Korea, are malnourished, according to a U.S.-based media outlet. "Thirty-two percent of children under the age of five in nurseries in Yanggang Province are suffering from stunted growth due to malnutrition," Voice of America (VOA) said Tuesday. "This is the highest rate among eight provinces in North Korea." VOA said the report was based on data provided by the United Nations World Food Program (WFP), which conducted the survey in eight provinces in the isolated country for six months last year. The average malnutrition rate across the nation was 25.4 percent. [Malnutrition]
• N. Korea falls well short on food for its people
  North Korea's daily food distribution only met 60 percent of the U.N. recommendation. /Yonhap By Lee Jin-a North Korea doled out 360 grams of food daily to each citizen in April and May, 60 percent of the United Nations' recommendation, a U.N.-affiliated organization said Thursday. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the daily distribution in the isolated country was 50 grams less than the same period last year and 10 grams less than the previous quarter. Because of a poor harvest last year, the state could neither satisfy the U.N.'s daily recommendation of 600 grams nor achieve its daily target of 573 grams. [Sanctions] [Agency]
• North Korea to have largest food shortage since 2011
  Posted on : Jun.13,2016 17:12 KST UN FAO report says production of staple crops like rice and corn is down, and other cereals like soybeans are up In 2015, North Korean farmers produced much more soybeans, cereals and other non-staple crops than the previous year to compensate for the sharp decline in the rice and corn harvest. Despite this, North Korea’s food shortage this year is expected to be about 690,000 tons, the largest since 2011. According to a report on North Korean food supply and demand in 2015 and 2016 recently published by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), North Korea’s yield last year in crops such as soybeans, sorghum, millet, buckwheat, barley, wheat and potatoes (excluding the staples of rice and corn) increased by 35% year on year to 1.27 million tons.
• N. Korea's food shortage may reach worst level this year
  North Korea seems to be 694,000 tons short of food this year, the worst food shortage since 2011, Washington-based Voice of America (VOA) said Saturday, citing a United Nations body. In the grain year of 2015-2016, North Korea will import some 300,000 tons of food, but may still face a shortage of 394,000 tons, the VOA said, quoting an estimate from the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization. The report said North Korea's rice harvest dropped 26 percent to 1.95 million tons last year from a year earlier, while its corn harvest recorded an on-year drop to 2.3 million tons last year. "North Korea's total grain harvest declined 9 percent last year from a year earlier," the VOA said. Still, North Korea saw its harvest of other cereals like beans, sorghum and buckwheat increase by about 35 percent last year, according to the report. "Production of beans, the main source of protein for the North Korean people, grew 37 percent on-year to 220,000 tons," the FAO was quoted as saying in its report. Kwon Tae-jin, a researcher at GS&J Institute, said North Korea "may have given up rice production, which requires a large quantity of water, and instead planted other crops amid a water shortage," according to the report. (Yonhap)
• FAO labels N. Korea in need of external food help
  By Lee Jin-a The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has re-designated North Korea and 36 other countries, including Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Nepal, as "in need of external food assistance." The FAO said Thursday: "North Korea has to secure more than 700,000 tons of food through import or assistance from international organizations to meet the annual demand this year. Poor rains and limited availability of irrigation water reduced the 2015 aggregate food production." The reclusive state has been labeled as a "food deficit country" since 2013. The North produced about 1.8 million tons of rice and 2.7 million tons of other grains in 2015, according to FAO data. But it still needs to secure at least 5.4 million tons of food to satisfy annual demand. The international organization has released $8 million in humanitarian aid this year to help more than 2.2 million vulnerable North Koreans, including 1.8 million children who need urgent nutrition assistance. The country was given $15 million in 2011, $12 million in 2012, $15 million in 2013, $6 million in 2014 and $8 million in 2015. [Sanctions]

• N. Korea's food shortage running deep
  By Lee Jin-a North Korea produced 1.8 million tons of rice last year, up 0.3 million tons from a year earlier, the U.S.-based Voice of America said Friday. But the country needs at least 5.4 million tons of grain a year, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The reclusive state secured 2.7 million tons more with other grains in 2015, but was still short 0.9 million tons for annual demand, the FAO said. Quoting the FAO's biannual report, "Food Outlook," the VOA said North Korea secured 1.9 million tons of rice, including 100,000 tons it will import. But the isolated state still has the least amount of rice among the 14 Asian countries, along with Iraq. According to the report, each North Korean citizen will have 68 kilograms of rice, on average, from this fall until next summer. The FAO also estimated that the North secured 2.6 million tons of corn and 117,000 tons of pork last year.
• Int'l Red Cross begins assisting N. Korea on droughts, floods
  The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) has embarked on projects aimed at helping North Korea to minimize the damage from natural calamities such as droughts and floods, a U.S.-based media report said Thursday. The IFRC's North Korea support project is designed to help the country deal with natural disasters and was formally launched on May 1, the Voice of America (VOA) said, citing a Finnish Red Cross official.
• Christian Friends of Korea April 2016 Newsletter
  You can read about our latest visit to the DPRK and the continued development of the Hepatitis B treatment project in our April newsletter.

• N. Korea's food shortage worst in four years, says UN
  By Lee Jin-a North Korea is suffering its worst food shortage since 2012, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. "North Korea has to secure 694,000 tons of food to overcome the shortage," said the U.N. "Food production has drastically fallen due to severe droughts last year." The organization said total grain production --including cereals, soybeans and potatoes -- stood at 5.42 million tons last year, down 9 percent from 2014. About 18 million North Koreans, -- 70 percent of the population -- depend on the government for their living. However, the amount of food distributed to the people has not met daily needs in the last few months, the U.N. said. [Food]
• North Korea on the Verge of Another Famine?
  Konstantin Asmolov The residents of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea are being warned the country will soon be struck by a famine as severe as the one they experienced in the 1990s. That period in the history of North Korean is known as “the Arduous March,” and according to the North Korean central mass media, the hard times are, basically, around the corner. A front-page story printed in Rodong Sinmun—the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea—discusses this topic. A similar news was also disseminated via mass media worldwide with reference to The Chosun Ilbo, a major South Korean newspaper. According to the South Korean periodical the North Korean government is allegedly planning to begin a collection of grains (one kilo per month from each North Korean resident), and that this year the country was looking to purchase 440 thousand tons of food abroad, but had received only 17.6 thousand tons by the beginning of February. The article also informed that Pyongyang hopes to assure loyalty of North Korean citizens by launching a propaganda campaign persuading its citizens to conserve food warning them of punitive measures for the violation of restrictions. Besides, the article mentioned that farmers are forced to give away surplus of crops, and that this situation results in a civil unrest. [Sanctions] [Famine] [Destabilisation]

• Press Release Eugeme Bell Foundation on SK blocking of TB medicines for NK
  March 9, 2016 The lives of more than 1,500 North Korean tuberculosis (TB) patients are at risk because the Republic of Korea government omitted making humanitarian aid an exception to the additional sanctions against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) announced on March 8. The Eugene Bell Foundation is declaring a medical emergency and is appealing to the Korean people and the international community to help save their lives. [Sanctions] [Aid weapon]

• 25,000 NK children malnourished by drought: UN
  By Choi Sung-jin About 25,000 North Korean children are malnourished because of a long drought last year and require immediate treatment, the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) said. The agency made the announcement Tuesday while noting that the North's grain production fell 20 percent from 2014, according to The Guardian. "The effects of drought will continue through this year," UNICEF was quoted as saying. "The rationing of grain has sharply dropped, affecting the health and nourishment of women and children." Timothy Shafter, UNICEF's representative in North Korea, said: "The severe drought of 2015 has reduced both grain production and the supply of safe and clean water to children." Of the total 15.5 million British pounds (27 billion won) needed for the support of North Koreans, the agency has received only 38 percent, Shafter said, adding that every time Pyongyang conducts a nuclear test, aid from the international community dries up.
• Humanitarian assistance to the people of North Korea is in jeopardy
  Dear Friend,
  Humanitarian assistance to the people of North Korea is in jeopardy.
  In response to this week's reported nuclear test by the North Korean government, the North Korea Sanctions Enforcement Act of 2015 may now advance quickly in Congress. It contains provisions that if enacted will severely restrict the very limited humanitarian operations still underway to assist the people of North Korea. The disengagement enforced by current sanctions has decreased rather than enhanced the capacity of the global community to impact policies of the North Korean government. Further disengagement is not the answer. [Aid] [Sanctions] [Aid weapon]

• How Bad is North Korea’s Food Situation? Getting a Grip on the Numbers Confusion
  By Benjamin Katzeff Silberstein 09 December 2015 DPRK Premier Pak Pong Ju visits farm in North Hwanghae Province (KCNA)When analysts attempt to make sense of data on North Korea, confusion is often the order of the day. This year has been no exception. International aid agencies claim that a major drought has fomented a now-dire food shortage in the country, but in truth, the numbers don’t seem to indicate that things are any worse than normal. Agricultural reforms may be helping to alleviate some pain from the drought, but the new policies certainly don’t seem to be working miracles. Let’s recap the developments over the past few months. First, the drought swept across the Korean peninsula in the first half of this year, prompting calls for global action from North Korean authorities and international aid agencies. The DPRK, for its part, predicted the drought would be the worst in a century and lead to extensive food shortfalls. [Food]

• Christian Friends of Korea Newsletter September 2015
  Amid Tensions, CFK Team Returns to DPRK Against a backdrop of increasing tensions on the Korean Peninsula culminating during our visit in a declaration of “semi-war” status, CFK’s technical team of 8 people returned to DPRK from August 20-September 5 for 17 days of work at TB facilities. This visit that was originally planned for May had to be postponed due to the prolonged ebola quarantine, so we were eager to get these work projects back on track.

• Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and FAO
  Partnering for sustainable food and nutrition security Over the past three decades, FAO has cooperated with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, providing agricultural technical assistance ranging from agroforestry, fruit and crop production and marine aquaculture to transboundary pest and disease control. Emergency support has been a major feature of cooperation in the past, while more comprehensive programme approaches to development have been adopted since the second half of the 1990s, including an increasing focus on issues such as food safety [FAO]
• Democratic People’s Republic of Korea: Drought Snapshot (August 2015)
  A long period of abnormally dry weather has caused drought in DPR Korea (DPRK) affecting agricultural production, reducing access to water and leading to a deterioration of health, nutrition and sanitary conditions. [Drought]

• S. Korea moving away from large scale aid to North Korea
  Posted on : Jul.28,2015 18:32 KST 22 trucks carrying fertilizer and agricultural materials move north toward the Unification Bridge in Paju Gyeonggi Province, Apr. 28. The materials are being donated by the Ace Gyeongam Foundation to farmers in Sariwon, North Hwanghae Province in North Korea. The shipment was the first approved fertilizer aid in the five years since the enactment of the May 24 Measures. (by Shin So-young, staff photographer) Policy change appears to be a codification of conservative governments aversion to unconditional aid The South Korean government has decided to stop providing large-scale aid to North Korea annually, which often included as much as 400,000 tons of rice and 300,000 tons of fertilizer. Instead, it plans to recalibrate its North Korean aid efforts to individual development and cooperation projects spearheaded by the private sector in the areas of public health, agriculture and stockbreeding, and forestry. “We will overhaul the current budget system for the Inter-Korean Cooperation Fund, moving from organization-based aid by the government, the private sector, and international organizations to project-based aid starting with the 2016 budget,” a Ministry of Unification official said on July 27. This will end budget allocations for food aid and fertilizer aid to North Korea, which are classified as government assistance. In the future, budget allocations will be made in the categories of young children and public health, agriculture and stockbreeding, and forestry.[SK Aid] [Aid weapon]
• Rain brings drought relief in North Korea
  June rainfall eases fears of chronic food shortages although many areas remain extremely short of water, says South Korea A farmer stands in front of a field in South Hwanghae province North Korea. In other parts of the country, rains have eased the drought that has been called the worst for a century, according to South Korean officials. A farmer stands in front of a field in South Hwanghae province North Korea. In other parts of the country, rains have eased the drought that has been called the worst for a century, according to South Korean officials. Photograph: Wong Maye-E/AP Reuters Friday 10 July 2015 15.20 BST Last modified on Friday 10 July 2015 15.24 BST North Korea received enough rain in June to ease a drought that had been described by Pyongyang as the worst in a century – although parts of the country remain acutely short of water, the South Korean government said on Friday. The North’s official media said in mid-June the country had been hit by the worst drought in 100 years. The lack of rain is believed to have compounded chronic food shortages in North Korea, which has seen external aid decline in recent years. “We believe the drought was eased considerably in June,” said South Korea’s unification ministry spokesman Jeong Joon-hee. “Rainfall in June rose to almost 90% of the average year.” [Drought]
• Humanitarian Update: Jerome Sauvage and the OCHA Report
  by Stephan Haggard | July 9th, 2015 | 07:00 am In the last two weeks, my colleague Marc Noland posted a series of three assessments of current drought risk in the North; they are linked below. Here, we pull back a bit and link to two sources that provide a somewhat longer-run view of the humanitarian picture. First up, Jerome Sauvage visited UC San Diego several months back and gave a useful overview of UN operations, summarized by him here; Sauvage spent three years as resident representative for the UNDP in Pyongyang (November 2009 to January 2013) and thus has a wide perspective and knows whereof he speaks. His first point is that the humanitarian situation should be characterized as fragile but not a full-blown crisis. This assessment is based on developments in the year prior to early 2015 and extensive contact with people on the ground; although the baseline is low, Sauvage emphasizes evidence of modest improvements. His second point is how modest the UN program in the country is at this point; the figure below from the UN report makes the point. Even as appeals have drifted down since 2011, the shortfalls as a share of total appeal has widened in the last few years. Sauvage is intent to note that the modest operations can hardly be accused of propping up the regime and he provides a useful overview of the range of activities underway. But what comes through most strongly is that this the UN presence is just about the only significant aid presence left at this point, the ongoing efforts of a handful of NGOs notwithstanding. Finally, he highlights the ongoing tussle between North Korea and the UN’s efforts to maintain international humanitarian norms, one of the reasons why the presence is so modest. [Drought] [Victim] [Blame]
• Red Cross prepares to respond to the drought in DPRK
  Published: 8 July 2015 11:28 CET One of the other impacts of water shortages is a spike in waterborne diseases, and the situation is especially serious among women and children under the age of five. Photo Credit: EUPS Unit 3 By Hler Gudjonsson and Khaled Masud Ahmed, IFRC The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) is facing the worst drought in 100 years, a catastrophe which now threatens to cause widespread food and water shortages in the country. A joint needs-assessment carried out by the local Government and humanitarian actors indicates that total crop production is likely to be reduced by 30-40% in the drought-affected areas, including a 40-50% reduction in the early harvest. In preparation for the drought, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) has a long-term cooperation with the Red Cross Society of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea on the implementation of various programmes that are conducted in close cooperation and coordination with the relevant authorities. Areas of focus relevant to the drought response include disaster risk reduction, healthcare, water and sanitation and organizational development. - See more at: http://www.ifrc.org/en/news-and-media/news-stories/asia-pacific/korea-democratic-peoples-republic-of/red-cross-prepares-to-respond-to-the-drought-in-dprk-69021/#sthash.S4KvWbOZ.dpuf [Drought]
• Children's lives at serious risk if DPRK drought continues: UNICEF
  GENEVA, July 8 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) Wednesday warned that children in some parts of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) may be at serious risk of malnutrition and disease if drought continues there. Rainfall figures and information from humanitarian agencies and the government indicated that parts of the DPRK are already facing serious drought. North Hwanghae, South Hamgyong and South Hwanghae are most affected provinces by the decline in rainfall. UNICEF officials have recently met with local health officials in affected provinces who confirm reports of significant increases in diarrhea among children, as the absence of rain threatens access to safe water and sanitation. [Drought]
• Despite drought, N. Korean cereal imports lower than 2014
  Chinese trade data indicate decrease in cereal imports when compared to same period in 2014
  July 1st, 2015 Leo Byrne North Korean grain imports so far in 2015 give a mixed account of the reported drought in the DPRK, with a recent sharp increase in imports offset by lower overall shipments than were seen over the same period last year. Chinese customs figures show that throughout the first three months of the year DPRK cereal imports remained at just under 300 tons per month. April bucked the trend, with imports jumping sharply to over 6,000 tons, but dropped to less than a 1000 tons the following month. Despite the late surge, the small shipments from January to March mean overall North Korea imported a thousand tons less cereals this year than during the first five months of 2014. While it is unlikely the DPRK ever sees surpluses of food, improved harvests in recent years may be partly responsible for the 2015 drop. “In the last few years, between 2012 and 2014, the harvest of grain has steadily increased, which would lead to lessening of the pressure to import grain in the DPRK,” Kim Young-hoon of the Korea Rural Economic Institute told NK News. [Food] [Imports]

• UNICEF is requesting US$18 million to meet the humanitarian needs of children in DPRK in 2015
  In the programming context in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), structural causes of vulnerability remained unchanged; life-saving humanitarian assistance continues to be a critical need across areas of nutrition, health, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and education – particularly in the north-eastern provinces and remote counties. Support is critically needed to address the underlying drivers of vulnerability
• North Korea fears famine as drought halves food production, says UN
  ‘Worst drought in 100 years’ has cut rice production by another 12% in the reclusive state with over 10.5 million people already affected by the hunger crisis Thomson Reuters Foundation Friday 19 June 2015 04.05 BST North Korea faces further food shortages as production in the country’s main growing region is expected to be cut in half, the United Nations food agency said. UN representatives visited the country’s breadbasket in North Hwanghae and South Hwanghae provinces on 10 June and found that potato, wheat and barley harvests were at risk of being cut by up to 50% in drought-hit areas. Wells are dry and reservoir levels are low following meagre rain and snowfall in 2014 and early 2015, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said . “We don’t have enough information to say if people are starving or not,” said senior FAO official Liliana Balbi . “But the situation is serious. They are on the borderline.” State media in the isolated country called it “the worst drought in 100 years”. The latest El Niño weather pattern was responsible for much of the drought, the FAO report said. The government has also not properly maintained irrigation canals and other farm infrastructure, Balbi said. [Agriculture] [Agency]
• Should We Be Worried About North Korea’s Drought?
  Perhaps. But we shouldn't take Pyongyang's word for it. By Andrei Lankov June 23, 2015 North Korea is experiencing a major drought. The first news about grave water shortages appeared earlier this year; in late May, the United Nations warned that the country might face a “huge food deficit.” By mid-June, the North Korean drought had become an international news story. And on June 16, the Korean Central News Agency, the North Korean official wire service, finally chimed in, calling it “the worst drought in 100 years.” When people talk today about problems in North Korean agriculture, the grim events of the late 1990s loom. Back then, over half a million people starved to death as society broke down following the passing of the country’s longtime leader Kim Il Sung — the worst famine East Asia had seen in decades. So, unsurprisingly, international media tends to worry about a major famine. [Famine] [Agency]
• North Korea fears famine as drought halves food production, says UN
  ‘Worst drought in 100 years’ has cut rice production by another 12% in the reclusive state with over 10.5 million people already affected by the hunger crisis Thomson Reuters Foundation Friday 19 June 2015 04.05 BST North Korea faces further food shortages as production in the country’s main growing region is expected to be cut in half, the United Nations food agency said. UN representatives visited the country’s breadbasket in North Hwanghae and South Hwanghae provinces on 10 June and found that potato, wheat and barley harvests were at risk of being cut by up to 50% in drought-hit areas. Wells are dry and reservoir levels are low following meagre rain and snowfall in 2014 and early 2015, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said . “We don’t have enough information to say if people are starving or not,” said senior FAO official Liliana Balbi . “But the situation is serious. They are on the borderline.” State media in the isolated country called it “the worst drought in 100 years”. The latest El Niño weather pattern was responsible for much of the drought, the FAO report said. The government has also not properly maintained irrigation canals and other farm infrastructure, Balbi said. [Drought] [Agency]
• North Korea drought 'worst in a century'
  Amid an ongoing food shortage, North Korea has been hit by what it describes as its worst drought in a century. Fears are growing over the crisis as state constraints have caused international aid to simultaneously fall. North Korea drought State news agency KCNA said on Wednesday that the drought was causing "great harm to the agricultural sector," with four granaries particularly affected. "According to the hydro-meteorological authority there has been no rain in the (western) provinces of North and South Hwanghae," KCNA reported. With water levels in reservoirs at their lowest level and rivers in the regions also drying up, the rice farming regions are struggling to meet demand as the grain must be submerged in water in order to grow. North Korea also relies heavily on hydroelectric power and suffers from persistent electricity shortages, which can be drastically worsened by periods of no rain. Training and propaganda campaign The state, officially known as Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), has now launched a campaign encouraging the public to help out on farms and is using mobile water pumps, run on diesel and longer pipes, to draw water into fields. "Farm managers reported receiving training in dry rice planting techniques and other measures that they were trying to conserve water," said Linda Lewis of the American Friends Service Committee, a group that runs farm projects in the North.
  Neighboring South Korea has also experienced a sharp decrease in rainfall in recent months. According to the country's national weather agency, South Korea's northern regions have seen around half the rain of an average year. [Drought]
• US humanitarian aid group plants trees in NK
  By Yi Whan-woo Korean-American aid workers have planted some 170,000 trees in North Korea to bolster inter-Korean cooperation, a U.S. media outlet reported Friday. The Korean-language edition of the Voice of America (VOA) said online that members of the One Green Korea Movement (OGKM) planted young, bare-root pine trees during their visit to the reclusive state in late May. Based in New Jersey, OGKM is a private organization mainly comprised of Korean-Americans, with a couple of advisers from South Korea. They include Seoul's former U.N. ambassador, Lee Si-young, and former Korea Forest Service Minister Lee Don-koo.
• Drought-hit North Korea seen as staving off food crisis
  by Jack Kim and James Pearson Reuters May 31, 2015 SEOUL – North Korea has updated farming methods and switched crops that could help soften the blow of drought and avert a disastrous food shortage, an aid worker and an analyst said Sunday, after a U.N. official warned of another “huge food deficit.” Impoverished North Korea, which suffered a deadly famine in the 1990s, has seen international food aid fall sharply because of its restrictions on humanitarian workers and reluctance to allow monitoring of food distribution. Food supplies had since improved and production has been at the highest levels, resulting in the lowest shortfall last year since the mid-2000s, according to independent South Korean studies. “Supply this year will be even more stable and any shortfall is likely to be met sufficiently by imports,” said Kwon Tae-jin of the GSnJ Institute in Seoul, an expert on North Korean agriculture. “Improvement in the supply of food isn’t likely by chance or a temporary situation,” he said, crediting an increased allocation of resources in agriculture. [Agriculture] [Food]

• Dry winter sparks fears of another food crisis in North Korea
  By The Washington Post Sunday, February 8, 2015 at 12:00 am SEOUL — As North Korea heads toward the “barley hump” — the lean season before the rice and corn harvest in the summer — aid agencies are warning that an unusually dry winter is compounding chronic food shortages in the impoverished country. And while North Korea might no longer be in a state of famine, malnutrition remains such a widespread problem that even slight changes in weather can have an outsized impact on ordinary people’s food supply. “We’re concerned about seed scarcity and the low level rain and snowfall,” John Aylieff, deputy Asia director at the U.N.’s World Food Program, said from Pyongyang. “All of these things are raising concerns about the winter harvest this year.” Winter crops — including wheat and barley — should be growing now, but after an exceptionally dry year in 2014, rainfall around the country has been markedly lower than usual so far this year, particularly in the “cereal bowl” provinces of Pyongan in the west and Hwanghae in the south. Although the winter harvest makes up only 5 percent of North Korea’s domestic food supply, it is a critical time because the crops see the country through the lean season known locally as the barley hump — the period between May and August before rice and corn crops are harvested. “If there is a big gap, this could prolong the lean season and it could prove a ‘flash point’ for malnutrition,” Aylieff said. North Korea has a chronic food security problem. Before the Korean peninsula was divided after World War II, the southern half always had operated as the bread basket and the north as the industrial heartland. That has meant that, since the division, the North has struggled to feed itself even at the best of times. It muddled through for about four decades with the Soviet Union as its communist benefactor. [Food] [Agriculture]

• Seoul Resumes Fertilizer Aid to N.Korea
  The South Korean government on Monday approved civilian fertilizer aid to North Korea for the first time in five years. The aid was halted after the North sank the Navy corvette Cheonan in March 2010. It remains to be seen whether this will lead to a thaw in cross-border relations, but the North certainly softened in its attitude after earlier rejecting humanitarian aid. Unification Ministry spokesman Lim Byeong-cheol said the government’s policy here is "to keep allowing humanitarian aid to the North that is helpful to the improvement of North Koreans' livelihoods."
• NGOs in Action: Engage Korea
  by Stephan Haggard | April 14th, 2015 | 07:00 am This blog has an interest in the variety of ways that NGOs might productively engage North Korea. A relatively new NGO we had missed is pursuing an interesting model. Engage Korea is a student-­driven initiative led by Ye Jin Kang and Stina Jinsun Bae. Kang is a student at Harvard Medical School who did a stint at Pyongyang University of Science and Technology managing outreach and Bae is a Ph.D. candidate at Copenhagen Business School who has done research on Sweden’s engagement with the DPRK. The latter is interesting because of some quiet training efforts the Swedes have run; we will cover Bae’s work on this subject. What is distinctive about the model is the effort to cultivate a global network of students, junior scholars, and practitioners by providing education on the DPRK that might inform the work of other NGO start-ups. The group has done this by organizing or supporting more standard conferences on humanitarian engagement with the DPRK (Oxford in May 2013, Harvard September 2014, and one scheduled in Cambridge for December 2015). But they will also experiment shortly with an online course (with a simple application process) focused on health: the overall state of the healthcare system, building capacity, the TB problem, and the challenges of operating on the ground in the DPRK. If it works, this is a model that could achieve global reach and could be scaled to other issue areas. [NGO]
• U.N. calls for $111 million for crucial aid for North Korea
  Reuters News | Apr 09, 2015 By Magdalena Mis LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The United Nations has called for $111 million to fund crucial humanitarian needs this year in North Korea, which it said remains drastically under-funded. Funding for U.N. agencies in North Korea fell from $300 million in 2004 to less than $50 million in 2014 and the country urgently needs money for food and agriculture, health and nutrition, and water and sanitation programs, the world body said. "(North) Korea is both a silent and under-funded humanitarian situation," Ghulam Isaczai, U.N. resident coordinator for North Korea, said in a statement released late on Wednesday. "Protracted and serious needs for millions of people are persistent and require sustained funding." About 70 percent of North Koreans are food insecure and almost one third of children under five are stunted, the United Nations said in its report on North Korea "Humanitarian needs and priorities 2015", released before the funding appeal. Many health facilities do not have functioning water systems and seven million people need access to clean water and proper sanitation to prevent malnutrition and reduce cases of diarrhea and other diseases, the United Nations said. Children in rural areas and those in institutions such as nurseries, kindergartens and orphanages have little access to water and sanitation, it added. About 25 percent of North Korea's 24.62 million people still have no access to essential health services, including vaccines and basic medical treatment, the United Nations said. More than 350,000 pregnant women are at risk of common life-threatening conditions such as obstetrics complications because they have no access to essential supplies and services, it said. [Aid] [Food] [Sanctions]

• S.Korean Groups Help N.Korea Fight Tuberculosis
  A dozen South Korean state organizations and civic groups have joined hands to help North Korea fight tuberculosis. This is the first time that South Korean government and private organizations have teamed to help the North fight the disease. They announced their efforts on Tuesday, which was World Tuberculosis Day. Saenuri Party lawmaker Moon Jeong-lim and Dr. John Linton of Yonsei University's Severance Hospital were appointed to lead the group. Moon said there are 140,000 tuberculosis patients in the North and 22,000 die each year and cited the ailment as the most serious health issue in any attempt to achieve reunification. [Health]
• North Korea’s Food Situation: Stable and Improving
  by Scott A. Snyder February 17, 2015 When asked in his January 22 interview with YouTube [9:00 ff.] about the likely effects of greater sanctions on North Korea following the Sony hack, President Obama repeated a mantra widely associated with North Korea that as a result of its isolated, authoritarian leadership, “the country can’t really even feed its own people” and that “over time, a regime like this will collapse.” But the latest reports show that North Korea’s food situation is stable, and the leadership probably thinks it is doing better, not worse. The UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) released its latest assessment of the situation in North Korea on February 3, 2015. The nature of the assessment differs from assessments of previous years in that it relies solely on DPRK figures supplemented by additional observations based on FAO satellite analysis and educated judgments regarding DPRK production gathered through past experience inside the DPRK, but the report does not benefit from information gathered during past on-the-ground food security assessment missions. These missions had been taking place annually through the fall of 2013 but the mission did not occur in the fall of 2014. [Food]

• The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea Outlook for the Food Supply and Demand in 2014/15 (November/October)
  After increasing markedly for three consecutive years, food production remained stagnant in 2014 with the aggregate output put at 5.94 million tonnes (including cereals, soybeans and potatoes in cereal equivalent). Paddy production dropped by 10 percent due to reduced irrigation water availability, following low precipitation in winter and dry spells during the 2014 main season. However, this decline was compensated by a significant increase in maize output, as a result of mass mobilization of people to water maize plants. Production of the 2014/15 early season potatoes and minor wheat and barley crops, to be harvested from next June, is forecast to fall considerably. The total utilization needs for the 2014/15 marketing year (November/October) are set by FAO at 5.49 million tonnes of cereal equivalent and the cereal import requirement is estimated at 407 000 tonnes. The Government is expected to import 300 000 tonnes of cereals, leaving an uncovered deficit of 107 000 tonnes for the current marketing year. With a stagnant harvest in 2014, the food security situation in 2014/15 is likely to remain similar to that of the previous marketing year, with most households estimated to have borderline and poor food consumption rates.
• Dry winter sparks fears of another food crisis in North Korea
  A crane loads off the Russian food aid to North Korea from a Russian ship at Nampho port Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2014 in Nampho city, North Korea. (Jon Chol Jin/AP) By Anna Fifield February 7 at 3:30 AM ? SEOUL — As North Korea heads toward the “barley hump” — the lean season before the rice and corn harvest in the summer — aid agencies are warning that an unusually dry winter is compounding chronic food shortages in the impoverished country. And while North Korea may no longer be in a state of famine, malnutrition remains such a widespread problem that even slight changes in weather can have an outsized impact on ordinary people’s food supply. “We’re concerned about seed scarcity and the low level rain and snowfall,” John Aylieff, deputy Asia director at the U.N.’s World Food Program, said from Pyongyang. “All of these things are raising concerns about the winter harvest this year.” Winter crops — including wheat and barley — should be growing now, but after an exceptionally dry year in 2014, rainfall around the country has been markedly lower than usual so far this year, particularly in the “cereal bowl” provinces of Pyongan in the west and Hwanghae in the south. Although the winter harvest makes up only 5 percent of North Korea’s domestic food supply, it is a critical time because the crops see the country through the lean season known locally as the barley hump — the period between May and August before rice and corn crops are harvested. Farmers spray fertilizer on cabbage crops which will be harvested early next month and used mainly to make Kimchi at the Chilgol vegetable farm on the outskirts of Pyongyang. (Wong Maye-E/AP) “If there is a big gap, this could prolong the lean season and it could prove a ‘flash point’ for malnutrition,” Aylieff said. North Korea has a chronic food security problem. Before the Korean peninsula was divided after World War II, the southern half had always operated as the bread basket and the north as the industrial heartland. That has meant that, since the division, the North has struggled to feed itself even at the best of times. It muddled through for four or so decades, with the Soviet Union as its communist benefactor. But the end of the Cold War and decades of economic mismanagement combined with droughts and floods in the 1990s caused a devastating famine, called the “arduous march” in Korean. Estimates on the number of dead range from 400,000 to 3 million, but there is no dispute that there was widespread suffering. [Agriculture] [Media] [Mismanagement]

• Year starts with bigger resumption of South Korean aid to North Korea
  Posted on : Jan.6,2015 15:59 KST Modified on : Jan.6,2015 16:05 KST Staff from Green Umbrella Children’s Foundation load flour and beans powder at a Bond Shed in Incheon, Mar. 12. The goods were sent as humanitarian aid to North Korean children and pregnant women. The entire shipment totalled 200 tonnes - 179.2t of flour and 20.8t of bean powder containing vitamin and minerals. The aid was delivered to 50,000 children and pregnant women in North Korea’s Nampo area through the Korean Council for Reconciliation and Cooperation. It was by far the largest shipment of humanitarian aid to North Korea since the Feb. 2013 inauguration of President Park Geun-hye. (by Shin So-young, staff photographer) First such moves in five years take place at a time when South and North are moving toward dialogue South Korean humanitarian aid to North Korea is starting up again as the New Year brings greater possibilities for resuming dialogue. Ministry of Unification spokesperson Lim Byung-chul announced on Jan. 5 that a private group had sent 20 tons of sweet potatoes with government approval in late 2014. “The 20 tons of sweet potatoes were delivered as nutritional assistance to support infants at orphanages in the Sinuiju area [of North Korea],” explained Lim.

• Seoul Flags Up Fertilizer Aid to N.Korea
  Seoul signaled a possible easing of years of tight sanctions on North Korea with a tentative offer of fertilizer aid. "If transparency is guaranteed, [the government] could consider various assistance measures to North Korea including small-scale fertilizer aid," Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae said in a speech at a local forum on inter-Korean cooperation on Tuesday. The government banned rice and fertilizer aid to North Korea in 2010 as part of sanctions after the North sank the Navy corvette Cheonan. As recently as this March, Ryoo voiced opposition to plans by the Korean Council for Reconciliation and Cooperation to send fertilizer aid to the North, so his latest comments fuel hopes in some quarters that the government is willing to shift its stance. Last month President Park Geun-hye told members of a unification committee that Seoul could provide fertilizer aid to North Korea as part of a grassroots approach to solving food shortages in the North.
• Christian Friends of Korea Fall Newsletter
  Fall Technical Trip, 2014 From September 20 – October 9, CFK made our third extended visit to DPRK for 2014. Our purpose this time was to install new water systems at two TB care centers, to conduct training on tractor/motorcycle/tri-motorcycle vehicle maintenance and repair, to inspect several renovation projects that were in process, and to prepare for our upcoming November visit to DPRK.
• U.N. official calls for stepping up humanitarian aid for N. Korea
  New York, Oct. 3, Kyodo Much more money is needed to battle issues in North Korea -- from stunting in children to chronic malnutrition -- so that the country's aid program is not languishing as one of the world's most underfunded, the director of U.N. humanitarian operations said Friday. So far, a "modest" appeal of $116 million for aid for North Korea has gone largely unmet. A "lamentably low" $26.6 million has been funded, John Ging said, which puts the international body's programs for North Korea in jeopardy and adversely impacts those in need. As the director of operations for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs he spoke to reporters after traveling to the country from Sept. 12 to 15. "The challenges that are faced in DPRK by the people there are silent in that they are quite underreported in that global context and we cannot ignore or forget our responsibilities there," Ging explained, adding that 16 million people are chronically food insecure. He was referring to the country by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Although South Korea recently announced that it would give $13.3 million to U.N. agencies to carry out their work, Ging remains concerned about the funding shortage and is alarmed by a dramatic fall off from $350 million in 2001. "The most pressing issue is for children, with 30 percent of the children in the country stunted; that is the most pressing humanitarian issue and that is about the future for this country," the official noted. Beyond the capital city, he visited several hospitals where the World Health Organization provides pediatric and maternal health care. He also traveled to orphanages as well as to a factory and farm.
  Ging said he had "constructive" conversations with officials and was granted access to the places he wished to visit. "I can understand that internationally there may be a perception that it is not possible to work in DPRK when in actual fact it is among the best programming that I have witnessed in my three and a half years in this job when we look at how it is focused," added Ging. "It should not be languishing as one of the worst funded in the world."

• Protracted Relief and Recovery Operation (PRRO) 200532 “Nutrition Support for Children and Women” in DPR Korea
  PROJECT OVERVIEW The two-year project started in July 2013 through June 2015 as a continuum of the previous PRRO 200114. The project was designed to assist about 2.4 million people, mainly children and pregnant and breastfeeding women in 87 counties of DPRK with 205,800mt of mixed food. In partnership1 with the DPRK Government, WFP supported 14 food production factories which produce fortified biscuits and Super Cereal for children and women. Given the extent and continuation of the poor funding situation for the operation, a more systematic targeting and further prioritization of the existing resources was warranted. Therefore, DPRK Country Office has conducted a budget revision to realign both the beneficiary groups and food ration to meet the most vulnerable. This budget revision incorporates a reduction in the number of people to be assisted under the PRRO from 2.4 million to 1.8 million in 87 counties within 9 provinces for 2014-2015 with 137,238 mt of mixed food commodities. Five out of the seven biscuit factories were phased out from the project during the first half of 2014. [WFP]

• North Korea at risk of receiving food aid
  Published: 7:13AM Saturday August 23, 2014 Source: AP The World Food Programme may have to shut down its operations in North Korea by early next year unless it gets more funding from international donors by this autumn, the UN agency's director for Asia said. WFP, which has the largest presence of any UN agency in the isolated country, has already scaled back its planned two-year, $200 million program to feed 2.4 million people because it has only enough funds to cover about a quarter of the cost. [WFP]

• Lessons from aid workers in North Korea
  25 July 2014 Author: Eun Jeong Soh, ANU Since the mid-1990s, various governmental and non-governmental organisations have delivered aid to North Korea’s orphanages and hospitals. But for some time now aid to North Korea has dwindled. The US has provided virtually no aid since 2009, South Korea has banned direct state aid and and limited private assistance since 2010, and UN World Food Programme operations have been running well below target levels. Today, there is talk of resuming and large-scale humanitarian aid internationally. But the more consistent and successful aid provided by a small number of individuals from on a small scale provides important lessons. These individuals can offer an interesting perspective that challenges preconceived notions about how to engage with the isolated country. [Aid] [Academic]
• South to provide North Korea with nearly $3 billion in aid
  Posted on : Jul.16,2014 16:59 KST Aid for humanitarian groups could be a sign that May 24 measures will be eased By Choi Hyun-june, staff reporter In line with the announcement of the personnel for the Presidential Committee for Unification Preparation, the South Korean government said on July 15 that it would give 3 billion won (US$2.92 million) from the Inter-Korean Cooperation Fund to private South Korean organizations to support humanitarian aid projects in North Korea. Since this is the first time that the government has used its budget to support North Korean aid organizations since the May 24 measures were instituted in 2010, a sign that the measures are being relaxed, at least in a limited way. During the briefing on July 15, Ministry of Unification spokesperson Kim Ui-do said, “There are three categories of aid projects that North Korean citizens can benefit from, namely, health and medical, agricultural, and livestock raising. One billion won will be given to each category, which adds up to three billion won altogether,” Kim said. Specifically, the health and medical category includes helping clinics to treat and prevent diseases among children, the agricultural category includes supporting greenhouses, and the stock breeding category includes giving aid to the dairy industry. Just before announcing the May 24 measures in 2010, the Ministry of Unification gave 420 million won (US$408,862) in aid to Green One Korea, a private organization. After this, the government stopped providing aid of this sort. Since then, the Inter-Korean Cooperation Fund has only been supported in a limited way through UNICEF and other international organizations. Some analysts think that the announcement on Tuesday means that the May 24 measures themselves may be in line for removal. But the Ministry of Unification advised against reading too much into the decision. “Since this aid is intended to improve the lives of the North Korean citizens, the government regards it as an activity that is permitted within the framework of the May 24 measures,” an official at the ministry said. [SK Aid] [Aid weapon] [Dresden]

• Park’s private sector aid to North Korea falls to all time lows
  Posted on : Jun.16,2014 13:27 KST Unification Ministry hard line policies for inter-Korean private sector exchange plummets to one-sixth former President Lee’s levels By Choi Hyun-june, staff reporter For the sixth straight year, South Korea and North Korea will hold separate private sector events to commemorate the June 15 Joint Declaration from the 2000 inter-Korean summit between then-President Kim Dae-jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. In the years just after the declaration, the two countries had held shared events. Meanwhile, other private sector cooperation efforts remain at rock-bottom levels as the Blue House refuses to allow even the sort of private sector activities that once served as a bridge when relations were rocky with Pyongyang. The South Korean and North Korean committees for the June 15 Joint Declaration had agreed to hold a joint event in Kaesong this year, but the South Korean government refuses to allow South Korean groups to participate. [SK NK policy] [Aid] [Aid weapon]

• Humanitarian aid for North Korea starts
  Posted on : Mar.13,2014 15:13 KST Staff from Green Umbrella Children's Foundation load flour and beans powder at a Bond Shed in Incheon, Mar. 12. The goods will be sent as humanitarian aid to North Korean children and pregnant women. The entire shipment totals 200 tonnes - 179.2t of flour and 20.8t of bean powder containing vitamin and minerals. The aid will be delivered to 50,000 children and pregnant women in North Korea's Nampo area through the Korean Council for Reconciliation and Cooperation. This is by far the largest shipment of humanitarian aid to North Korea since the Feb. 2013 inauguration of President Park Geun-hye. (by Shin So-young, staff photographer) [Aid]
• S.Korean Charity to Send 200 Tons of Food Aid to N.Korea
  A South Korean charity will send the biggest consignment of food aid to North Korea since the Park Geun-hye administration took office here. ChildFund Korea will dispatch about 200 tons of food from Incheon Port on Wednesday morning bound for the North Korean port of Nampo, a spokesman said Tuesday. The shipment is worth about W200 million (US$1=W1,065) and marks the first in recent years to go beyond medical or nursery supplies for infants. The 180 tons of wheat flour and 20 tons of nutritious soybean flour will be distributed through the North's National Reconciliation Council, a working group for inter-Korean exchanges, to about 23,000 young children in 332 daycare centers and 29,000 mothers and pregnant women in Nampo. It is the equivalent of about 10 days' worth of rations. The humanitarian aid program has been hampered as access to North Koreans is restricted amid tense cross-border relations in the wake of the North's nuclear test and temporary suspension of the joint Korean Kaesong Industrial Complex last year.
  South Korean charities have only been able to ship supplies to the North on 10 occasions since the Park administration's inauguration. [Aid weapon]

• The State of North Korean Farming: New Information from the UN Crop Assessment Report
  By Randall Ireson 18 December 2013 The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and World Food Programme recently released their 2013 Crop and Food Security Assessment Report (CFSAR) for the DPRK, continuing a series of annual reports on farm production begun in 1995.[1] Like its predecessors, the 2013 CFSAR estimates the total main season production of major food grains and tubers, and projects next year’s harvest of winter wheat and barley as well as spring potato crops. Overall, the CFSARs provide a useful time-series of data to analyze changes and developments in the North’s farm sector. Like all reports on North Korea, the CFSARs are by no means perfect, but we have come a long way from the 1990s when for most reports, any precision after the first digit represented a wild guess. While there are certainly errors in the estimates, the reports have benefitted from the use of a consistent methodology over many years and improved cooperation from DPRK authorities. Moreover, since 2011, the assessment teams have included international Korean-speaking members, and since last year, they have been able to take sample crop cuttings from selected fields as a cross check against farm production reports. In 2013, as in recent years, there were four assessment teams, accompanied by members of the resident international aid community. They visited 51 farms from 27 counties in all nine agricultural provinces, and also interviewed a small number of individual households. The mission used official data provided by the government, but adjusted those data based on ground observations and satellite information. General Findings The 2013 CFSAR has two main conclusions: ?Aggregate farm production is again up slightly, bringing the North the closest it has come to sufficiency in almost two decades. [Agriculture]
• Private aid groups get Seoul’s permission to travel to North Korea
  Posted on : Dec.7,2013 14:17 KST Also, South and North officials meet to discuss providing internet access at the Kaesong Industrial Complex By Park Byong-su, staff reporter The Ministry of Unification announced on Dec. 6 that it has given three civic organizations that provide humanitarian aid to North Korea permission to take relief goods into the country. The civic organizations that have received the government’s permission to take goods into North Korea on this occasion are Seomgim, Caritas Korea, and Nanum International. The organizations generally work with infants and young children at nurseries and kindergartens in North Korea and with patients at county-level public hospitals. They are planning on sending a variety of relief goods to North Korea including the ingredients for making enriched bread, long underwear and other winter clothing for children, and basic medical supplies.
• FAO/WFP CROP AND FOOD SECURITY ASSESSMENT MISSION TO THE DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF KOREA
  28 November 2013 Mission Highlights 1. In the DPRK, despite a small reduction in planted area, overall crop production in 2013/14 is estimated to increase by about 5 percent. 2. A total of 5.98 million tonnes of food output (including paddy, cereals, soybeans, and cereal equivalent of potatoes) from cooperative farms, plots on sloping land, and household gardens for 2013/14 is expected. This estimate includes the 2013 main season harvest that was concluded and the forecast for 2014 early season crops. When paddy is converted to milled rice and soybeans to cereal equivalent, total food production is estimated at about 5.03 million tonnes. 3. Unusually early and heavy rains in July and early August compromised maize and soybean yields but had little effect on paddy. 4. Soybean production recorded a second consecutive year of decline, due to a 6 percent reduction in yield. Main-season potatoes performed well this year, which bodes well for the seed supply for the 2014 early crop. However, supply of seeds for minor winter and spring wheat as well as barley is a constraint due to declining production over consecutive recent years. 5. Based on the Mission’s estimate of total utilization needs of 5.37 million tonnes of cereal equivalent (rice in milled terms), the Mission estimates a cereal import requirement of 340,000 tonnes for the 2013/14 marketing year (November/October). Assuming the official import target of 300,000 tonnes of cereals is met, the Mission estimates an uncovered food deficit of 40,000 tonnes for the current marketing year. This food gap is the narrowest in many years, and is mainly due to the higher 2013 production. 6. Despite the improved harvest, the food security situation remains similar to previous years with most households having borderline and poor food consumption. Consumption of protein and oils remains an issue of concern. 7. The Mission observed immense logistical challenges for the public distribution system (PDS) and therefore expresses concerns about the timeliness and consistency of food distribution. 8. Markets and informal mechanisms of bartering and other forms of exchange are believed to be of increasing importance for household access to food, particularly in urban areas. 9. The nutrition situation has improved in recent years; however, rates of stunting remain high and micronutrient deficiencies are of particular concern. 10. In order to improve food security and nutrition, the Mission also makes recommendations for national and international support for: (i) Agriculture-related: sustainable farming practices, better price and market incentives for farmers, and improvement in farm mechanization. (ii) Food security-related: stimulate spring crop production and implement disaster preparedness and response programmes. (iii) Nutrition-related: improve dietary diversity and feeding practices for young children and women through different strategies such as behavioural change, market reform, and encouraging livestock and fish production; strengthening treatment of severe and moderate acute malnutrition and improving hygiene and sanitation practices.

• Putting North Korea Aid Efforts on the Map
  By Jonathan Cheng@JChengWSJ Engage DPRK’s map of organizations operating in North KoreaNorth Korea has cultivated a reputation as one of the most impenetrable countries in the world. So you might be surprised to learn just how many outside non-profits, charities and businesses have set up shop in the country formally known as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. It certainly came as a surprise to Jiehae Blackman, who set out two years ago to keep track of all the foreign humanitarian, development, educational and business groups operating in North Korea. Where one might expect a handful of scattered groups and aid efforts, Ms. Blackman’s online tally — published Tuesday as EngageDPRK.org – runs into the hundreds of organizations which, since 1995, have conducted over a thousand projects in the country. [Inversion] [Aid]
• How did this mapping initiative get started?
  When the “Engage DPRK” Mapping Initiative was being conceived in 2011, there was no public online resource that provided a comprehensive overview of foreign engagement in the DPRK. For foreigners who wanted to get involved with work in the DPRK, it was difficult to know how to even begin to answer questions such as: ?What can I do to work with people in the DPRK? ?What are others doing? ?Who is being reached? Furthermore, there were only a few resources that allowed for a more nuanced understanding of the country, especially about life in cities or counties that are not commonly featured in the media. For those wanting to learn more about the everyday lives of the DPRK people, it was difficult to imagine life in the DPRK beyond what one could piece together from limited media reports, that described either the rich elites in Pyongyang or those struggling in the countryside. Korean language resources provided a better picture, but for English speaking audiences, information was very limited.

• Food aid to North Korea saves lives — it doesn’t change minds
  August 16th, 2013 Author: Karin J. Lee, Committee on North Korea Well-implemented humanitarian aid can save lives and build relationships between the giver and the receiver. But there are limits. Food aid will not permanently change the security environment on the Korean peninsula, and humanitarian relief should not have security objectives. US aid to North Korea has been linked at some level to security issues for nearly 20 years. As Andrew Natsisos relates, although the US government responded negatively to a DPRK request for assistance in 1994, the privately funded provision of medicines following a subsequent cholera outbreak ‘had a salutary effect during the negotiations, (of) building goodwill among … normally suspicious North Korean interlocutors’. [Aid weapon]
• DPR Korea: UN calls for $98 million to respond to urgent humanitarian needs
  Children at the Provincial Baby Home in DPRK which is supported by UNICEF and WFP 15 August 2013 – The United Nations today said $98 million is urgently needed to address critical humanitarian needs in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), where some 2.4 million people need regular food assistance. “While the overall humanitarian situation has improved slightly over the last 12 months, the structural causes of people’s vulnerability persist,” said UN Resident Coordinator Ghulam Isaczai. “External assistance continues to play a vital role in safeguarding the lives of millions whose food security, nutritional status and essential health needs would otherwise be seriously compromised.” The funds would be used for food and agricultural support, health and nutrition services, and water and sanitation interventions for the remainder of the year, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a news release
• Red Cross to provide US$320,000 for flood-hit N. Korea
  SEOUL, Aug. 2 (Yonhap) -- The international Red Cross has said it will provide North Korea with an emergency fund of US$320,000 to help flood victims in the communist country. In a report posted on its website Thursday, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said it has allocated 299,744 Swiss franc from its disaster relief emergency fund "to help the DPRK Red Cross Society in delivering immediate assistance to 5,000 families or 20,000 beneficiaries."

• Strawberries in Winter: AFSC’s Program in North Korea
  When you ask yourself who holds the keys to world peace, you may not think of farmers. But in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK or North Korea), where bad weather makes crops hard to grow and political isolation makes help hard to come by, a farmer’s success can make a world of difference. Linda Lewis, director of the American Friends Service Committee’s (AFSC) DPRK program, traveled to North Korea in the wake of political tensions this spring. Hers was the first American group to visit in some time, and our farm partners expressed joy that she still came. Through the years, AFSC has helped introduce new technologies in the DPRK to improve farm yields and alleviate hunger, including plastic trays for seedling cultivation and most recently, greenhouses. This March, AFSC brought a group to China for a study tour—an unusual travel opportunity for DPRK farmers, and one we try to offer every year.

• Foreign Assistance to North Korea
  Mark E. Manyin Specialist in Asian Affairs Mary Beth Nikitin Specialist in Nonproliferation June 11, 2013 [Aid weapon]
• Food Shortages in N.Korea 'Not at Crisis Level'
  The United States said North Korea's food shortages are limited to certain regions and do not constitute a food crisis. Local media reports on Monday cited a paper by the U.S. Congressional Research Service earlier this month as showing that the lack of food could be termed chronic as of the middle of this year, but falls short of reaching the "crisis" level. It added that while the U.S. is not considering providing food aid to the North at the present time, Seoul could offer aid to help thaw long-frozen ties between the two Koreas. The paper said the U.S. has provided over U.S.$13 billion in aid to North Korea since 1995.
• New UN Head in DPRK
  Posted: 30/05/13 by RCO Ghulam M. Isaczai is greeted by H.E. Pak Ui Chun, DPRK Minister for Foreign Affairs Mr. Ghulam M. Isaczai, a native of Afghanistan arrived in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) on 17 May to take up his new assignment as the UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative for DPRK. “I am very excited to be in DPRK during these challenging times for the UN system and the people of DPRK. I believe the UN has an important role to play in DPRK, particularly in areas of humanitarian assistance and recovery from the effect of natural disasters that this country is prone to. The people of DPRK need UN assistance at this time of constrained resources for the immediate lifesaving requirements of the population while working towards longer-term development objectives.” Ghulam M. Isaczai, brings extensive experience in international development, humanitarian emergencies and post conflict recovery with the United Nations system and international NGOs in Asia and the Middle East. He has led and managed successful programmes in areas such as poverty reduction, good governance, environment management, disaster reduction as well as volunteerism and civil society engagements.
• U.N agency approves food aid to N. Korea
  The United Nations' aid group has approved emergency food aid to North Korea to help feed 2.4 million undernourished people in the impoverished communist country, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported Saturday. The plan calls for the World Food Program (WFP) to send 206,800 tons of food to North Korea during one year starting from July, the Washington-based radio station said. The shipment will include nutrition biscuits for some 1.9 million children and nutrition-balanced meals for some 500,000 pregnant women, it said. The WFP's board meeting, convened in Rome, Italy, approved the plan with a budget of some $137 million, it added. The decision comes after the aid group conducted a comprehensive assessment of the food situation and prospects for food production in North Korea, the report said. According to a WFP report released last month, eight out of every 10 North Korean families are suffering malnutrition with little access to protein foods. In its survey of 87 North Korean families from January to March, the WFP found that 80 percent of them were undernourished mainly due to a lack of protein intake, the report said.
• Irish NGO to support food, water projects in N. Korea: report
  Ireland's largest humanitarian organization plans to support projects aimed at helping North Korea bolster its food output and improve water sanitation, a report said Wednesday. According to Radio Free Asia, Concern Worldwide, a non-governmental organization (NGO) dedicated to helping the world's poorest people, said its 2013 project for the communist country calls for building food production infrastructure in places such as Hwanghae and Gangwon provinces. The group, which first started helping the North in 1997 when the country was suffering from acute food shortages, said this year's projects include building goat and soy milk production factories, greenhouses, fish hatcheries, and food processing plants. It also wants to transfer eco-friendly farming techniques to local farmers that will allow them to use less fertilizers and pesticides. On the water sanitation front, the media outlet said the NGO wants to support the construction of water pumps, reservoirs, drain pipes, as well as setting up water mains that can allow people to gain access to clean water. It said that efforts will be carried out to build lavatories for homes, which are important for waste management and maintaining a clean water supply. Concern Worldwide, meanwhile, said that compared to last year, there has been a noticeable increase in the number of cars on the road in North Korea and more shops. It said its workers saw more Chinese businessmen and aid groups in the country.

• North Korea sanctions hit aid groups, some forced to carry cash by hand due to bank clampdown
  (David Guttenfelder/ Associated Press ) - In this Monday, May 20, 2013 photo, North Korean nurses say goodbye to representatives from foreign humanitarian agencies after a U.N. and North Korean government program to give vitamin supplements and deworming pills to children at a nursery school in Pyongyang, North Korea on Child Health Day. New international sanctions aimed at thwarting North Korea’s nuclear weapons program are having unintended consequences: halting money transfers by foreign humanitarian groups working to help those most in need and forcing some agencies to carry suitcases of cash in from outside. By Associated Press, Updated: Thursday, May 30, 4:43 PM PYONGYANG, North Korea — New international sanctions aimed at thwarting North Korea’s nuclear weapons program are having unintended consequences: halting money transfers by foreign humanitarian groups working to help those most in need and forcing some agencies to carry suitcases of cash in from outside. At the same time, some restrictions are meant to sting the country’s elite by crippling the import of luxury goods, such as yachts, fancy cars and jewelry. But they do not appear to be stopping the well-heeled from living large in the capital Pyongyang. . Much of the aid group difficulties are linked to the state-run Bank of China’s decision earlier this month to follow Washington’s lead and sever ties with the North’s Foreign Trade Bank, the main money transfer route for most foreign organizations, U.N. agencies and embassies in Pyongyang. With that line cut, aid workers in North Korea say they are left with few other options to receive foreign currency for expenses including rent, bills and salaries for local staff. [Sanctions]

• UN Agencies in DPRK Urgently Require US$ 29.4 Million to Respond to Critical and Life-saving Needs
  Report from UN Country Team in DPRK Published on 29 Apr 2013 (Pyongyang/Bangkok, 29 April 2013) The World Food Programme (WFP), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), World Health Organisation (WHO), Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) appeal for urgent funding to be able to meet the most critical and life-saving needs of the people of DPRK in the areas of Health and Nutrition up to the end of the year. Despite a slight improvement of the overall humanitarian situation over the last 12 months, the structural causes of people’s vulnerability persist. External assistance continues to play a vital role in safeguarding and promoting the well-being of millions whose food security, nutritional status and general health would otherwise be seriously compromised.
• Eugene Bell Foundation given visas for humanitarian work as S. Koreans trickle back from stalled Kaesong complex
  By Gil Yun-hyung, staff reporter While North Korea prohibited members of the Corporate Association of Kaesong Industrial Complex (CAKIC) from entering the North, it granted access to representatives of the Eugene Bell Foundation. The foundation has been providing humanitarian and medical aid to North Korea for some time. On Apr. 18, the Eugene Bell Foundation announced that a group of nine people who had been staying in Beijing waiting for their North Korean visas, including Chairman Stephen Linton and a group of donors to the foundation, finally received their visas that afternoon and boarded a plane bound for Pyongyang. "Even this morning, it was unclear whether they would be allowed to enter the country, but fortunately the visas were issued in the afternoon,” a representative of the foundation said. This is being seen as showing that North Korea is linking the Kaesong Industrial Complex issue with the current political situation on the Korean peninsula, but that it is willing to receive humanitarian support. Particularly noteworthy is the fact that the group visiting North Korea includes eight Americans and one French person, but no South Korean nationals.
• Pyongyang Allows Visit by S.Korean Charity
  Despite its recent threats, North Korea has allowed a private South Korean organization to enter the country so it can check on a recent aid shipment. The Eugene Bell Foundation sent eight U.S. citizens to North Korea on Thursday to monitor the distribution of anti-tuberculosis drugs worth US$600,000. The medication was sent to the North about a month ago. The group will be in North Korea for three weeks stopping by tuberculosis centers in Pyongyang, Nampo and Pyongan Province. The charity foundation has sent drugs to the North on a regular basis since it was founded in 2000
• United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)Factsheet on DPRK
  
  * Health—Child and Maternal Health—TB and Malaria
  * Nutrition
  * Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)
  * Education
  * Advocacy for Child Rights Present in DPRK since 1996 Covering 9 out of 10 Provinces, 190 counties Funding Summary (2013) (regular resources excluded) Required: US$ 27.5 million (programme) and US$ 22.8 million (emergency) Received: US$ 12 million (programme) and US$ 1.5 million (emergency)
• World Food Programme (WFP)Factsheet on DPRK
  
  * Food Assistance
  * Nutrition
  * Food Security Present in DPRK since 1995 Covering: 9 out of 10 Provinces; 85 out of 209 counties Funding Summary (2013) Required: US$ 93 million Received: US$ 33.5 million

• S.Korea to Send First Humanitarian Aid to N.Korea Under New Administration
  Seoul will send its first shipment of humanitarian aid to North Korea since President Park Geun-hye took office. The government has approved a proposal by South Korean private charity Eugene Bell to send over US$600,000 worth of tuberculosis medicine to eight clinics run by the group in North Korea. The shipment is expected to be delivered in April. The aid is strictly for humanitarian purposes. The last such aid package to the North was shipped in November under President Lee Myung-bak last year.
• Final Report of the National Nutrition Survey 2012
  18 Mar 2013 Report from Government of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea Published on 15 Mar 2013 — View Original September 17th to October 17th 2012 1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The last nationwide survey including nutrition indicators was the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) carried out in 2009. It showed that 32.4% of children <5y (0-59 months) were stunted (Chronic malnutrition) (8.4% severely stunted) and that 5.2%1 of children were acutely malnourished (0.5% of the severe form). Since then two screenings of mid-upper-arm circumference (MUAC) have been done (October 2011 and February 2012) in the counties were a community management of acute malnutrition (CMAM) program is on-going. Another nutrition assessment using MUAC methodology was conducted in November 2011 in WFP operational counties. All of the MUAC assessments were conducted in different times so comparison of the findings with the national data is not possible but gives indication of seasonal child acute malnutrition in the assessed geographical areas. The present survey was therefore needed to update the indicators for the population nutritional status. All 10 provinces have been included2 . Data collection was done from September 17th to October 17th 2012.
• Key Humanitarian Messages Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
  15 March 2013 Although the overall humanitarian situation has improved slightly over the last 12 months, the structural causes of people’s vulnerability persist. External assistance is needed and continues to play a vital role in safeguarding and promoting the well-being of millions whose food security, nutritional status and general health would otherwise be seriously compromised. ? Inadequate medical supplies and equipment make the health care system unable to meet basic needs, while the water and heating systems need repair. Also, the rapidly deteriorating infrastructure of educational institutions is a concern that requires considerable resources to ensure safe and child friendly learning spaces.

• U.S. Congress to Ban Food Aid to N.Korea
  The U.S. Congress is expected to pass a bill banning food aid to North Korea this year. The same bill was put before the Congress last year but was shelved due to partisan dispute over the federal debt, extending the current Farm Act for another nine months. A congressional source on Wednesday said Senate majority leader Harry Reid re-introduced the Farm Bill late last month prohibiting the diversion of funds raised for foreign aid to send food to the North. The U.S. has given food aid to the North from funds from the U.S. Agency for International Development. The bill would ban the practice until 2018 except if the president grants an exception he considers in the U.S. interest. Now Congress seems to feel a greater sense of urgency because the North launched a space rocket and is preparing for another nuclear test, reneging on an agreement it reached with the U.S. on Feb. 29 last year. Both the Democratic and Republican parties support the bill, which involves a budget of hundreds of billions of dollars including farm subsidies and a nutrition improvement program. [Aid weapon]

• An American NGO ... in North Korea
  By Jeff Baron Dec 15 2012, 8:33 AM ET 8 The story of an Arizona rancher who moved to the most oppressive country on earth -- and is attempting to reconcile two countries that have been enemies for decades. The United States has boots on the ground in North Korea. Cowboy boots, size 10 Durangos, and they belong to Rob Springs, a Korean-speaking Arizona rancher. Springs and his cowboy boots made their 66th visit to North Korea in November 2012. They've spent nearly three years on the ground there since 1997, traveling to every part of the country. Springs is a private citizen, and his story doesn't deal with the issues high on our national security agenda -- how the U.S. government deals with North Korea's weapons and human rights. But it's an important story, because in critical respects it competes against the common narrative about North Korea that Americans -- including those who must deal with its nuclear and missile programs -- get almost daily from the media.
  [An excellent article and one well worth reading
  Tim Beal]
• DPRK national nutrition survey released
  PYONGYANG, 13 December 2012 - “Modest but significant,” was how UNICEF’s representative in the Democratic Republic of Korea, Desiree Jongsma, described the improvements in childhood nutrition revealed by data from a new comprehensive national nutrition survey released by the Government of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea last week. The data was published in a preliminary report on results from a major national nutrition survey conducted in September and October 2012. It shows that stunting has decreased from 32.3 per cent to 27.9 per cent since 2009, while acute malnutrition is down from 5.2 per cent to 4 per cent and the incidence of underweight children is down from 18.8 per cent to 15.5 per cent.

• FAO/WFP CROP AND FOOD SECURITY ASSESSMENT MISSION TO THE DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF KOREA
  12 November 2012 FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS, ROME WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME, ROME Mission Highlights 1. In DPRK, staple food production in 2012/13 is estimated to increase for the second consecutive year, reflecting improved yields, by about 10 percent over the revised above-normal production in 2011/12. 2. A total of about 5.8 million tonnes of food output from cooperative farms, individual plots on sloping land and household gardens for 2012/13 is expected, including estimates for the 2012 main season harvest and the forecast for 2013 early season crops. When paddy is converted to milled rice and soybeans to cereal equivalent, total production is estimated at 4.9 million tonnes. 3. Despite some flood damage in July-August to paddy crop in the main grain producing provinces, the timely availability of key inputs and an increase in the State procurement prices resulted in an overall increase in the main season crop harvest. Furthermore, the impact of the prolonged dry spell in the first half of the season was largely mitigated by increased irrigation efforts including mass mobilization of people to water maize plants. 4. Soybean production, on the other hand, decreased this year by over 30 percent, primarily due to the dry spell. Given the overall inadequacy of pulse production, efforts should be redoubled, including more favourable pricing of the commodity in relation to other cereals, to increase the protein content of the diet. 5. The second consecutive poor harvest of early crops has resulted in a shortage of wheat, barley and potato seed for the 2013 winter and spring crops. Overall, production from the early season crops over the last several years has been on a negative trend. 6. Based on the Mission’s estimate of total utilization needs of 5.43 million tonnes of cereal equivalent (rice in milled terms), the Mission estimates cereal import requirement of 507 000 tonnes for the 2012/13 marketing year (November/October). Assuming the official target of 300 000 tonnes of food imports, the Mission estimates an uncovered food deficit of 207 000 tonnes for the 2012/13 marketing year. This food gap is the narrowest in many years mainly due to the improved harvests. 7. Household food consumption has improved but serious gaps remain between recommended and actual nutrient intake. The predominant share of the population remains food insecure and highly vulnerable to production shocks. 8. Acute malnutrition rates seem to have improved this year due to better food rations and a consistent food assistance pipeline. Chronic under-nutrition however remains a public health problem. 9. The Mission recommends that international support be focused on expanding and developing nutrition programmes specifically targeted to about 2.8 million vulnerable people (children, pregnant and lactating women, elderly and disabled or chronic ill) in five provinces in the North- East of the country. 10. In order to improve food security in the short to medium term, the Mission also makes recommendations for national and international support for - (i) increased production of protein commodities, namely soybean cultivation and fish pond development, (ii) revitalization of the double-cropping programme by providing inputs (e.g. seeds and fertilizer for the early crops wheat, barley and potatoes), improved mechanization and sufficient incentives to cooperative farms, and (iii) general assistance for household garden production. In the medium to longer term, adoption of incentive system through relevant changes in agricultural marketing would help elevate production and improve the country’s food security. [Food] [Agency]

• South Korean NGOs to assist children and flood victims in North Korea
  Posted on : Aug.29,2012 15:57 KST ??? facebook0 twitter1 Private organizations stepping in to fill gap left by poor Seoul-Pyongyang relations By Kim Kyu-won, staff reporter Members of the Korea NGO Council for Cooperation with North Korea (KNCCK) and Korean Council for Reconciliation and Cooperation (KCRC) have began a one-month drive to provide 3000 tons of wheat flour for children and flood victims in North Korea. KNCCK is an umbrella organization that represents 53 NGOs that provide aid to North Korea. The two organizations held a joint press conference on August 28 at the Korea Press Center in Seoul to ask people to help “gather love so that a meal of warm rice can be delivered to the children in the North.” In addition, they asked the South Korean government to lift sanctions on North Korea, which are obstacles to providing humanitarian aid.
• Current Emergencies
  United Nations page on DPR Korea emergencies
• Floods wreak havoc in North Korea
  Posted on : Aug.15,2012 11:49 KST Modified on : Aug.15,2012 12:20 KST A North Korean woman stands next to her makeshift tent in Songchon County, South Pyongan province. (AP) Citizens suffering from acute shortages of food and medicine By Gil Yun-hyung, staff reporter Ri Hyang-ran was forced to flee her home in her pajamas when heavy rains hit her village on the evening of July 23. The resident of the Ungok workers' district in Songchon County, South Pyongan province, was in such a rush to get out that the only thing she took with her was a portrait of Kim Jong-il and Kim Il-sung. A tearful Ri told an AP reporter who visited the scene on August 13 that she was forced to leave behind family pictures and medals her sons received while serving in the military.
• Vietnam donates 5,000 tons of rice to flood-stricken North Korea
  By Associated Press, Published: August 7AP HANOI, Vietnam — Vietnam’s president said his country would donate 5,000 tons of rice to flood-stricken North Korea, Vietnamese state media reported Tuesday. The pledge was made by President Truong Tan Sang in a meeting with North Korea’s visiting nominal head of state Kim Yong Nam in Hanoi on Monday, the Communist Party newspaper Nhan Dan reported. Flooding in North Korea has killed 169 people since late June, while leaving 400 missing and around 212,000 homeless.
• UN Body Sends First Food Aid to Flood-Hit N.Korea
  The World Food Programme says it is sending a first shipment of emergency food aid to flood-hit areas of North Korea, where torrential rain has killed nearly 120 people and has left tens of thousands of families without clean water and adequate supplies of food. After sending a survey team to North Korea earlier this week, the UN body said Friday that flooding caused considerable damage to corn, soybean and rice fields. Residents wait on the roof of a flooded building in Anju, South Pyongan Province, North Korea on July 30, 2012. /AP The WFP said the assistance will provide victims with an initial ration of 400 grams of corn a day for 14 days. It also stressed that tens of thousands of families urgently need clean drinking water to prevent disease. The North's official Korean Central News Agency has reported a total of 119 deaths in recent weeks, with more than 60,000 people made homeless and around 45,000 hectares of farmland submerged or washed away. Some information for this report was provided by AFP and Reuters.
• Choe Yong Rim Tours Anju City Hit by Flood
  Pyongyang, August 4 (KCNA) -- Choe Yong Rim, premier of the Cabinet who is a member of the Presidium of the Political Bureau of the Workers' Party of Korea Central Committee, toured Anju City, South Phyongan Province hit by flood. The torrential rain hit Anju City recently, leaving houses for thousands of families, almost all public buildings and industrial facilities inundated or destroyed and a large area of farmland washed away or buried under silt. This made it hard for a large area of cultivated land to expect any harvest of crops. The flooding also left water supply and drainage networks and power supply system unworkable. The premier learned in detail about the flood damage before holding an urgent consultative meeting.
• Flood-damaged North Korea asks for UN help
  Posted on : Aug.4,2012 11:08 KST Heavy have ruined farmland and drinking water, leading to food shortages and illness By Jeong Nam-ku, Tokyo correspondent North Korea suffered severe flooding damage in the wake of heavy rains in the second half of July. At least 119 deaths were reported so far, with drinking water supplies cut off for an estimated 50,000 households in the province of South Pyongan. Heavy farmland damage has analysts predicting the country’s food shortage will worsen. International organizations hurried to begin relief efforts. The United Nations reported on August 2 the findings of an emergency team sent to North Korea on July 31 to examine flooded areas. Japan’s Jiji Press reported Friday that 50,000 households in six areas of heavily hit South Pyongan, including the city of Anju and Songju County, had no access to drinking water due to contamination. The UN also reported a grave risk of contagion in the afflicted areas. One hospital in Chonnae County, Kangwon province was reported as having four times the average number of diarrhea cases. Heavy rains fell on North Korea between July 18 and 24 as the season‘s seventh typhoon passed through, leaving 88 dead. Additional rainfall measuring up to 400mm fell on the country’s west coast and parts of its East Sea coast on July 29 and 30, claiming another 31 lives and leaving 16 unaccounted for, the Korean Central News Agency reported. More than 80,000 people are believed to have lost their home in the most recent flooding.
• Korean Peninsula Groans Under Abnormal Weather
  Both Koreas have been suffering abnormal weather since late July, but while South Korea is sizzling in record heat, North Korea has been hit with heavy rainfall that has left more than 100 people dead. According to the Korea Meteorological Administration, the northwestern part of North Korea was hit by heavy some 253 mm of torrential rain in Anju last Sunday and 158 mm on Monday, while 140 mm of rain fell in Pyongyang last Sunday.
• UN Aid Workers Assess N.Korea's Flooded Regions
  A UN humanitarian agency says it has sent aid workers to two North Korean regions hit by severe floods to assess the need for relief supplies. UNICEF spokesman Christopher de Bono said UN personnel based in North Korea left the capital, Pyongyang, on Tuesday to visit the flood-ravaged provinces of South Pyongan and Kangwon. Heavy rains have triggered deadly floods across much of North Korea since July 25. State media last reported a death toll of 88 people on Saturday. There was no immediate word on casualties from downpours on Sunday and Monday.
• UNICEF sending team to assess flood damage in North Korea
  Posted on : Aug.1,2012 14:06 KST North Korea has seen deaths and extensive damage from recent heavy rains By Park Hyun, Washington correspondent UNICEF‘s East Asia and Pacific office said on July 30 that a UN investigation team would visit North Korea on August 6 to survey damage done by recent heavy rains and typhoons. Christopher de Bono, chief of communications for UNESCO’s East Asia and Pacific office, said in a statement, “We have agreed to send an inter-agency rapid assessment team to the two most affected counties tomorrow (July 31).” He added, “A UN response will be made after the inter-agency mission assesses the damages and gauges the immediate requirements of those affected.” The team is reportedly composed of UN staff currently residing in North Korea. North Korea‘s official Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) reported Saturday that 88 people had died throughout the country due to the typhoon and localized torrential downpours.
• Choe Yong Rim Visits Flood-hit Areas
  Pyongyang, July 31 (KCNA) -- DPRK Premier Choe Yong Rim went to Songchon County to acquaint himself with the state of rehabilitation from flood damage. Going round the town area of Songchon, town co-op farm and Ryonghung Co-op Farm, he learnt in detail about the state of damage in various fields, acres of farmland being washed away or buried and the rehabilitation from flood damage. He also consoled the inhabitants in the flood-stricken areas. He held a consultative meeting of the officials concerned on the spot. Discussed there were measures for ensuring emergency transport of materials urgent for rehabilitation by concentrating efforts on reconstruction of railways and roads while paying primary attention to stabilizing the people's living in the flood-hit areas. The premier underscored the need to energetically push ahead with the work for recovering from the flood damage and helping the flood-stricken inhabitants in the spirit of devotedly working for the society and collective. After taking stock of the flood damage in Sinyang County, he stressed the need to conduct afforestation for erosion control in a substantial way to suit the characteristic features of the region with lots of high mountains and valleys, and took necessary measures for them.
• After severe drought, North Korea hit hard by flooding
  Posted on : Jul.31,2012 11:59 KST Impoverished country lacks infrastructure to handle heavy rain; food shortage worsens By Gil Yun-hyung, staff reporter North Korea suffered major flooding in mid-July due to heavy rains and typhoon activity on the Korean Peninsula. The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on July 28 that 88 people were killed and another 134 injured amid a typhoon and heavy rains that struck between July 18 and 24. It also said some 5,000 homes had been destroyed, leaving 62,900 people affected, while 4,760 hectares of farmland was lost or buried, with 25,500 ha suffering flooding damages. The hardest-hit areas were the rice bowl regions of Pyongan and Hwanghae Provinces, as well as parts of Hanmgyeong Province.

• Korean Friendship Network
  27 July 2012 Food for Friends – North Korean Needy Orphans and Disabled Dear Supporters I am happy to let everyone know that our delegation had a successful and productive DPRK trip to follow up on our Food for Friends project. Hungry orphaned children and disabled workers are now receiving the nutrition they were missing before, and the benefits of these healthy meals are alleviating malnutrition. Not too long ago there were many orphaned children who were at a serious tipping point just holding on to life because they were eating very little food and did not have the right kinds of food that were essential for their required diet as babies and small children. The problem was quite serious and the need was desperate. I am blessed to say that children who were previously starving are now alive with energy as a result of eating nutritional meals at this time.

• Drought Withers Crops in N.Korea
  North Korea has been experiencing unusually dry weather since late April and the South’s Korea Meteorological Administration expects the dry spell on the peninsula to continue until the end of this month. The state-run Korea Rural Economic Institute here expects the North’s barley and wheat production yields to drop 20 percent this year, with overall crop production down around 15 percent. The institute added that if the drought continues, the regime may face a severe food shortage. Local experts believe the drought, the worst seen in the Stalinist state in half a century, is putting it on the brink of widespread famine as the situation is expected to deteriorate when food production is affected.
• North and South Korea scramble to protect crops as worst dry spell in a century hits peninsula
  By Associated Press, Wednesday, June 27, 1:33 PM KOHYON-RI, North Korea — North Korea dispatched soldiers to pour buckets of water on parched fields and South Korean officials scrambled to save a rare mollusk threatened by the heat as the worst dry spell in a century gripped the Korean Peninsula. Parts of both countries are experiencing the most severe drought since record-keeping began nearly 105 years ago, meteorological officials in Pyongyang and Seoul said Tuesday. The protracted drought is heightening worries about North Korea’s ability to feed its people. Two-thirds of North Korea’s 24 million people faced chronic food shortages, the United Nations said earlier this month while asking donors for $198 million in humanitarian aid for the country. Even in South Phyongan and North and South Hwanghae provinces, which are traditionally North Korea’s “breadbasket,” thousands of hectares (acres) of crops are withering away despite good irrigation systems, local officials said. Reservoirs are drying up, creating irrigation problems for farmers, said Ri Sun Pom, chairman of the Rural Economy Committee of Hwangju County. A group of female soldiers with yellow towels tied around their heads fanned out across a farm in Kohyon-ri, Hwangju county, North Hwanghae province, with buckets to help water the fields. An ox pulled a cart loaded with a barrel of water while fire engines and oil tankers were mobilized to help transport water. The North Korean villages of Kohyon-ri and Ryongchon-ri were among several areas that journalists from The Associated Press visited in recent days. Pak Tok Gwan, management board chairman of the Ryongchon Cooperative Farm in North Korea, said late last week that the farm could lose half its corn without early rain. Mountainous North Korea, where less than 20 percent of the land is arable, has relied on outside food aid to help make up for a chronic shortage since natural disasters and outmoded agricultural practices led to a famine in the 1990s. North Korean farmers still face shortages of fuel, tractors, quality seeds and fertilizer, the U.N. said in a report earlier this month. Many irrigation systems rely on electrically powered pumping stations in a country with unstable power supplies, the report noted. [Blame] [media]
• N. Korea says severe drought causes food shortage
  North Korea's official media continues to issue reports on the "worst drought in a century" in its western central areas, saying over the weekend that drought damage in a province just southeast of Pyongyang is serious enough to cause food shortages among its residents. The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Saturday, citing official data, that nearly 20,000 hectares of farmland have been parched in North Hwanghae Province as of June 23 and crops are withering away in the province. It noted that in particular, Hwangju County, a major granary of the province, has been severely affected by the long spell of drought. Hwangbo Son-nyo, an old woman living in Koyon-ri, was quoted as telling KCNA she had never witnessed such dry weather in the area in 70 years.
• OVERVIEW OF NEEDS AND ASSISTANCE IN DPRK 2012
  This Overview Funding Document (OFD) has been prepared by the UN Country Team under the auspices of the UN Resident Coordinator’s Office (RCO) in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) and with technical support from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific in Bangkok, Thailand. The document is an update to the first version circulated in February 2011. In the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), United Nations (UN) agencies comprising FAO, UNFPA, UNICEF, WFP, WHO and UNDP work with NGO partners to meet the population’s most urgent needs. These people require support to raise the standard of living and access to basic services to levels comparable with other countries in the region. The focus is on mitigating the protracted crisis through a sustained humanitarian response that addresses immediate and intermediate needs in nutrition, health, agriculture, water and sanitation, while also addressing some of the root causes of the vulnerabilities in order to build resilience and sustainable livelihoods. This Overview Funding Document (OFD) describes the current situation and the efforts being made to improve it. The activities described in the document are just one aspect of a larger response undertaken by the UN system in DPRK in the context of the “Strategic Framework for Cooperation between the UN and the Government of DPRK”.1 The larger response involves environmental protection, climate change mitigation and risk reduction, quality improvement of the educational system and rural energy. Some of these longer-term activities, outside the scope of this document, are financially supported by the agencies’ regular budgets or by global partnerships, such as the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM) or the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI).
• UN: N.Korea Aid Efforts 'Seriously Underfunded'
  The United Nations is calling for the international community to put aside political differences and boost funding to help address what it says are the dire humanitarian needs of North Koreans. The UN said Tuesday that aid efforts in North Korea remain "seriously underfunded," even as it unveiled a funding request for an additional $198 million to respond to "key humanitarian priorities" in the impoverished communist state in 2012.
• Iran to Send Humanitarian Aid to N.Korea
  Iran will send more humanitarian aid to North Korea. Iran's semiofficial Fars news agency reported Monday that the country's Red Crescent told North Korea's Red Cross that it will ship food items, including powdered milk, as well as relief and medical supplies to the impoverished country. An official with the North's Red Cross said Pyongyang has received blankets and tents from Iran, and that it may need more help as heavy rainfalls are forecast for the coming months.
• N.Korea Requests Vaccines for Children
  North Korea has asked an international organization for vaccines to treat North Korean children suffering from infectious diseases. South Korea's Unification Ministry said the Seoul-based International Vaccine Institute is waiting for its approval to deliver vaccines and other supplies to the North. Local broadcaster KBS reported earlier that Christian Loucq, the institute's director-general, said Pyongyang requested the vaccine aid during his visit there a month ago. Loucq added that about 12 out of every 100 North Korean children carry the hepatitis B virus, adding that there is an urgent
• UN paints bleak picture in North Korea, says two-thirds of country still struggles to get food
  By Associated Press, Updated: Tuesday, June 12, 4:45 PM PYONGYANG, North Korea — Millions of North Korean children are not getting the food, medicine or health care they need to develop physically or mentally, leaving an entire generation stunted and malnourished, the United Nations said Tuesday. Nearly a third of North Korean children under age 5 show signs of stunting, particularly in rural areas where food is scarce, and scores are dying from diarrhea due to a lack of access to clean water, sanitation and electricity, the agency said. Hospitals are spotless but bare; few have running water or power, and drugs and medicine are in short supply, the agency said in a detailed update on the humanitarian situation in North Korea. People in the capital, Pyongyang, live in relative comfort, but the situation in the rest of the country is more dire. About 16 million North Koreans — two-thirds of the country — rely on twice-a-month government rations, the report said. And there are no signs the government will undertake the long-term structural reforms needed to spur economic growth, it said. North Korea does not produce enough food to feed its 24 million people, and relies on limited purchases of food as well as outside donations to make up the shortfall. The United Nations called for $198 million in donations for 2012 — mostly to help feed the hungry but also to invest in programs designed to mitigate and prevent a chronic food shortage that has resulted in persistent malnutrition among North Korea’s young. The appeal comes at a delicate time for North Korea, which has sought to put forth an image of stability and unity during the transition to power of the new, young leader, Kim Jong Un. Yet it has begun to publicly acknowledging a severe shortage of food for the first time in years. “Malnutrition over a generation can have a long-lasting effect on a population in terms of physical growth, cognitive capacity, the ability to learn,” said Jerome Sauvage, the U.N.’s Pyongyang-based resident coordinator for North Korea. “The long-term effect of malnutrition can be very severe for a whole generation and on the whole population.” [Media] [Agency

• UN estimates NK to secure 2 million tons of rice this year
  A U.N. food agency has estimated that North Korea will secure 2 million tons of rice in 2012, up about 18 percent from last year, a news report said Wednesday. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said that the North produced 1.6 million tons of rice last fall and is expected to import 300,000 tons of rice and receive 100,000 tons of outside assistance, Washington-based Radio Free Asia reported, citing the FAO's food outlook. The Rome-based U.N. agency also estimated that North Korea's per capita rice consumption is expected to increase to 72.3 kilograms between last year's fall and summer of this year, up from 64 kilograms in the same period last year, the RFA said. [Food]

• Most N.Korean Children Undernourished
  Nearly two-thirds of North Korean children under 10, or some 2.2 million, suffer from growth disorders related to malnutrition and 18,000 of them are so undernourished that their life is at risk, according to a study. Hwang Na-mi, a researcher at the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs in Seoul, published her findings in the March issue of the journal Health and Welfare Forum on Sunday. She analyzed a nutrition assessment conducted in the North by the UNICEF in cooperation with the North's Central Statistics Bureau in 2004 and 2009.
• N.Korea to Allow More Monitoring of Food Aid Distribution
  North Korea has apparently agreed to increase the number of independent monitors who will observe food aid distribution there, removing a major stumbling block to the resumption of aid to the repressive country [Aid weapon]

• China urges international help for N. Korea
  Monday, Jan 30, 2012 BEIJING - China urged the international community on Monday to give impoverished North Korea more humanitarian help, amid reports Beijing decided on a major aid package to Pyongyang after Kim Jong-Il's death. Senior Chinese officials agreed to donate a large amount of aid to its nuclear-armed ally at a December 20 meeting chaired by President Hu Jintao in a gesture of support for the new regime of Kim's son, a Japanese newspaper said. Beijing would not confirm the meeting or comment on any specifics. "As a good friend and close neighbour of North Korea, China has always provided aid to North Korea within the realm of its ability to do so, to help North Korea develop its economy and improve people's livelihoods," the foreign ministry said in a statement. "We also hope the international community will provide North Korea with more humanitarian assistance." According to the Tokyo Shimbun, which reported from Seoul and cited unnamed sources, China decided to donate 500,000 tonnes of food and 250,000 tonnes of crude oil to North Korea at the meeting.

• Food rations to N. Koreans on steady rise since October
  01-29-2012 10:42 North Korea has steadily increased its food rations to citizens from October last year, a South Korean relief group activist said Sunday, citing an official from a U.N. organization. "We heard from an official at the Pyongyang office of the World Food Program (WFP) that the amount of food rations increased to 395 grams per person this month," the activist who recently returned from a trip to the North said. According to the WFP, the North's food rations decreased from 400 grams per head in April last year to 190 grams in May and to 150 grams in June. But after the fall harvest, the amount began to rise to 355 grams in October, 365 grams in November and 375 grams in December. This month's amount was up 20 grams from the previous month and also 15 grams more than 380 grams that the North Korean authorities unveiled in a plan delivered to the WFP at the end of last year. The rise in the North's fall harvest last year by 300,000 to 400,000 tons than the previous year seems to be the main reason behind the increased food distribution. Pyongyang is known to have made efforts to increase crop yields by importing an unprecedented amount of fertilizer from China last year. [Fertiliser]
• S. Korean group to send first flour aid to N. Korea after Kim's death
  SEOUL, Jan. 20 (Yonhap) -- Representatives of a South Korean charity group plan to visit North Korea next week to deliver 180 tons of flour aid to North Korea to help ease its chronic food shortages, officials said Friday. The planned shipment by the Seoul-based Korea Peace Foundation marks the first flour assistance to the communist country following the death last month of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. South Korea approved the two-day trip by eight to nine officials of the foundation that is set to begin on Jan. 27, according to Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Hyung-suk.

• North Koreans eat Mushrooms, not Grass
  Peter Wilson: Letter to Dominion Post, 26 December 2011
  The media myth that North Koreans eat grass (Tom Scott’s Cartoon Dec. 24)* came about when a Westerner looked out of a hotel window in the mid ‘90s and saw locals scavenging for mushrooms.
  It is true that North Korea is short of food.  It is not hard to identify the reasons.
  Only 15 percent of the country is cultivatable. This, plus the long six month winter when the ground is frozen, means that it is a physical impossibility for the country to grow enough food for the 23 million populace.
  Further, the country needs to trade so as to be able to generate an income with which to buy food. 
  They are prevented from trading however by US instigated physical and financial sanctions. The sanctions are a double whammy. Not only can they not buy food, they can not import seeds, fertiliser and fuel to grow food.    
  Prior to the collapse of the USSR and the imposition of sanctions, North Korea had the highest rice yields in NE Asia.
  Tom Scott should aim his barbs at the inhumane policies which not only prevent North Korea carrying out international trade and buying food but also restrict humanitarian food aid.
  Peter Wilson
  Agriculturalist with four decades of work on food production in Asia, including stints in North
  Dargaville, New Zealand

  * The caption reads 'the stocking filler flying off the shelves of North Korea this Christmas' and the picture is of the cover of a book, with Kim Jong Un holding a bowl of grass, whose title is '101 fun ways to cook grass, by new glorious leader Kim Jong Un'

• WFP Earmarks $80 Million to Support N.Korea in 2012
  The World Food Programme has decided to set aside nearly US$80 million to help the impoverished North Korean people next year. According to Radio Free Asia, $43 million will go to its relief operations in the North, while another $34.6 million will be directed towards emergency operations there. The UN agency 2012 budget for the reclusive state is nearly 70 percent higher than last year's budget of $48 million. Through its emergency operation, which will continue until March, the organization plans to feed more than 2.2 million North Koreans, mostly children and women.
• Team of builders from US arrives in North Korea to build 50 new homes for tree farm workers
  By Associated Press, Published: December 6 PYONGYANG, North Korea — A group of Americans is in North Korea to kick off a project to build 50 homes for families working at a tree farm outside Pyongyang. Six volunteers affiliated with the Fuller Center for Housing arrived Tuesday. Their trip comes at a time of improving relations between the U.S. and North Korea. The 50-unit project will house the families of workers at a tree nursery in Osan-ri. Participants with the nonprofit Fuller Center say they’ll be working side by side with North Koreans to build the homes. They’re aiming to finish three homes this week, and other volunteers are expected to arrive in coming months to help complete the project. In Americus, Georgia, Fuller Center President David Snell called the project a “true mission of peace.”

• FAO/WFP Crop and Food Security Assessment Mission to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
  25 November 2011
  Mission Highlights 1. OVERVIEW 2. OVERALL ECONOMIC SETTING AND AGRICULTURE IN DPRK 3. FOODCROP PRODUCTION IN 2010/11 4. FOOD SUPPLY/DEMAND BALANCE 2011/12 5. HOUSEHOLD FOOD SECURITY AND VULNERABILITY ANALYSIS 6. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FOLLOW-UP ACTIONS Mission Highlights 1. In DPRK, a total of just under 5.5 million tonnes of staple food production from cooperative farms, individual plots on sloping land and household gardens for 2011/12 is expected, including estimates for the 2011 main season harvest and forecast for the 2012 early season crops. This is about 8.5 percent higher than the revised near normal production in 2010/11 reflecting higher plantings and yields. When paddy is converted to milled rice and soybeans to cereal equivalent, the above total production comes to 4.66 million tonnes. 2. The increase in production was mainly due to the increased availability of fertiliser (up about 50 percent compared to last year), diesel and electricity in spite of the adverse weather. The July-August floods affected paddy crop and the subsequent typhoons particularly impacted the maize crop mainly in North and South Hwanghae, two of the important grain producing provinces.
• South Korea sends government official to North Korea to monitor humanitarian aid distribution
  By Associated Press, Friday, November 25, 8:39 PM SEOUL, South Korea — A South Korean official is heading to North Korea to help monitor the distribution of aid, the first time in three years that Seoul is joining a humanitarian mission to Pyongyang. South Korea’s Unification Ministry says the official left for Pyongyang on Friday with four aid workers. He’s expected to stay until Tuesday to help monitor the distribution of flour for North Korean children. The trip is the latest sign that tensions are easing between the rival Koreas. Relations have been strained since South Korean President Lee Myung-bak took office in 2008. They dropped to their lowest point after a North Korean artillery attack killed four South Koreans a year ago. [Aid weapon]
• WCC member churches involved in food shipment to North Korea
  18.11.11 Discussing an architectural model of the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva is left to right, Rev. Dr Hong Sung-Wook, Rev. Dr Kim Jung-Suk and Rev. Dr Lee Young-Hoon with WCC staff.A broad group of World Council of Churches (WCC) member churches, inside and outside of Korea, were involved in a recent shipment of food aid to North Korea. The shipment comes on the heels of a visit of several South Korean church leaders to Pyongyang, North Korea nearly three weeks ago. It is also the second food shipment to North Korea this year, initiated by the National Council of Churches in Korea (NCCK) with support from South Korean Churches and the North Korean and European members of the Ecumenical Forum on Peace and Security on Korean Peninsula. Reports from western aid agencies, who visited North Korea this September, said that large numbers of people were suffering from chronic malnutrition and faced starvation because of reducing food rations. The shipment of food was sent to the Korean Christian Federation (KCF) of North Korea. It included 180 tonnes of wheat flour and was transferred by truck to the border between North and South Korea.
• Stunted Growth Affects 4 in 10 N.Korean Preschoolers
  Nearly half of all children aged five or below living under the reclusive and poverty-stricken North Korean regime suffer from stunted growth due to malnutrition, the United Nations Development Programme reported. About 20 percent of them are also known to be underweight, the UNDP said in its annual report on Wednesday. Meanwhile, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has warned that tens of thousands of children from the country are at risk of severe malnutrition, which will have an irreversible impact on their future growth. The UN funding agency estimated that at least US$20 million is needed to prevent the nutrition crisis in the country. It urged donor countries to continue sending food aid to the impoverished country. [UNUS] [Sanctions] [Agency]
• UNICEF: NKorea children face irreversible damage from malnutrition as aid funding falls short
  By Associated Press, Published: November 2 GENEVA — The U.N. children’s fund says tens of thousands of children in North Korea are at risk of irreversible damage from malnutrition because of a shortfall in funding for food aid. UNICEF says it needs $20.4 million for its emergency response in the impoverished East Asian nation, but has so far received only $4.6 million. Christopher Tidey, a spokesman for the agency in Geneva, said Tuesday that more than 88,000 moderately malnourished children under five risk permanent damage or even death unless they receive assistance. Malnutrition is one of the reasons why some 11,400 children under five die in North Korea each year. The United Nations has urged countries not to make aid to North Korea dependent on progress in talks over its nuclear program. [Aid weapon][Sanctions]

• UN relief chief urges donors to put politics aside to help North Korea’s hungry millions
  By Associated Press, Published: October 21 PYONGYANG, North Korea — Wealthier countries need to put aside politics to help millions of North Koreans going hungry from food shortages, the U.N.’s top relief official said, renewing an appeal for assistance that has largely gone unmet. Speaking at the end of a five-day visit to North Korea, Valerie Amos, a U.N. undersecretary-general, said Friday that 6 million North Koreans, particularly children, mothers and pregnant women, need help. The figures, she said, are borne out by UN data and by what she learned from visits to farms, hospitals and orphanages, as well as from officials. [Victim] [UNUS]
• Outside Aid Has Failed. Only an ‘Intrusive Aid’ Approach Will Work?
  By Nicholas Eberstadt October 13, 2011 Nicholas Eberstadt, Henry Wendt Chair in Political Economy, American Enterprise Institute, and Senior Adviser, National Bureau of Asian Research, argues against providing humanitarian aid to the DPRK without strict international oversight. Instead Eberstadt proposes what he terms 'intrusive aid', which would require North Korea to comply with independent data collection and distribution of food aid. He writes, “The program of intrusive aid would be indivisible and non-negotiable...If Pyongyang agreed, the aid program would go forward. Otherwise the mission is scrapped — because Pyongyang refused to accept the conditions under which genuine humanitarian aid might have worked.” [Aid weapon][MISCOM] [Paradigm]
• Kim Yong Nam Meets UN Official
  Pyongyang, October 20 (KCNA) -- Kim Yong Nam, president of the Presidium of the Supreme Peoples' Assembly, Thursday had a talk with Valerie Amos, UN under secretary general for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief coordinator, and her party at the Mansudae Assembly Hall when the latter paid a courtesy call on him. Present there were Pak Kil Yon, vice-minister of the DPRK Foreign Affairs, officials concerned and Jerome Sauvage, representative of the Office of U.N. Resident Coordinator and Resident Representative of the UNDP to the DPRK.
• OCHA in N.Korea
  In the upper photo, Valerie Amos, head of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), left, is greeted by a North Korean official after stepping off a shuttle bus at the airport in Pyongyang on Oct. 17. The (North) Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), which released the photo, did not elaborate on what is the purpose of the U.N. official’s trip. She will reportedly assess the food situation outside the North Korean capital during her five-day stay there. Another possible issue of interest is to discuss reopening the OCHA office in Pyongyang that was closed in 2005 at the request of the North. In the photo below, trucks carrying 300 tons of flour in aid from the Korean Council for Reconciliation and Cooperation, a coalition of pro-unification civic groups, depart the South Korean border town of Paju for the North Korean town of Sariwon, Hwanghae Province, Oct. 19.
• UN Humanitarian Chief in N.Korea to Gauge Food Crisis
  United Nations' humanitarian chief Valerie Amos has arrived in North Korea on a mission to assess the communist country's chronic food shortages. Amos arrived Monday in Pyongyang, where she said she plans to hold talks with officials on long-range plans for meeting the country's food needs. "I hope to see for myself exactly the food security situation. I'm particularly concerned over the reports that there's increasing malnutrition amongst children, and I'm very much looking forward to my two days in the field when I'll have an opportunity to see a number of UN sponsored projects," said Amos. UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos (center left) shakes hands with North Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Pak Kil-yon on her arrival at Pyongyang airport on Oct. 17, 2011. /AP The world body estimates that six million North Koreans are in urgent need of food aid. It says world governments have contributed less than 30 percent of funding needed to end the food crisis. Earlier this month, Amos attributed the funding shortage to Western concerns that food aid will be diverted to the North Korean military and not reach those most in need. She said monitoring has improved in the past year, however, with the North allowing random visits and the use of Korean-speaking staff for the first time. The United States and the European Union both sent teams to assess North Korea's food needs earlier this year. The Europeans said they will send aid, but Washington still has not announced a decision. Some information for this report was provided by AP and AFP. [Aid weapon] [UNUS] [Diversion]
• UN Official Here
  Pyongyang, October 17 (KCNA) -- Valerie Amos, UN under secretary general for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief coordinator, and her party arrived here Monday. They were greeted at the airport by Pak Kil Yon, vice-minister of Foreign Affairs, Jerome Sauvage, representative of the Office of U.N. Resident Coordinator and Resident Representative of the UNDP to the DPRK, Claudia Von Roehl, representative of the World Food Programme Office in the DPRK, and Bijaya Rajbhandari, representative of the Office of the United Nations Children's Fund in the DPRK.
• When Apples Fall Far From the Tree
  A Case for Humanitarian Aid to North Korea
  An interview with David Austin by Christine Hong* | September 27, 2011 [Originally published in the September 2011 issue of KoreAm] Humanitarian relief efforts have faced doubts about whether they are actually reaching the people of North Korea who need them most. The difficulties are tied to political debate, in the United States and South Korea, and the wariness of philanthropic interests to contribute money or resources to any effort that can be exploited by the North Korean regime. David Austin is a program director for Mercy Corps, which has provided food assistance, agricultural development, medical relief and cultural exchanges for more than 12 years in North Korea. The agency's core projects and relationships stem from apple orchards planted in Gwail County, South Hwanghae Province. Having worked with the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture and with the U.S. Department of State Interfaith Cooperative Initiative, Austin brings to bear experience that demonstrates how humanitarian efforts are reaching their mark in North Korea, that is, connecting aid with individuals and communities, and addressing the causes of suffering.
  CH: The point that you raised earlier, about this being touted in certain circles as a manufactured emergency, there's a sense within the Western and the South Korean media that the North Korean regime not only exaggerates the extent of its food crisis, but also diverts food aid to the military. Is the North Korean government exaggerating the scope and scale of the crisis, and is giving food aid tantamount to supporting North Korea's military, if not nuclear program? DA: [Commentary] about food aid being redirected to the political elite and suggested favors makes me realize whoever said that doesn't know the kind of food that we give, because the kind of food that we give is a corn-soy porridge; it's a fortified corn-soy blend called CSB within the NGO community. There's only one way to eat it, and that is to put boiling water in it. It's not like you can take CSB and mix it in with something else to make some sort of bread, like wheat flour, or rice. It's a nutritionally based food to help people who are starving get enough nutrition so they don't die. It's not that tasty. That food, I am sure, does not get redirected to the political elite because nobody wants to eat it. It's not like we're sending over rice. In fact, in 2008 and 2009, we did not send rice, and we don't send rice. We send food that will help acutely malnourished people survive. The mainstay of our food program, CSB, is also something you can't resell on the market. North Korea's not going to take this food and then resell it to China because China doesn't buy CSB. Second, we monitor the food really closely. We have monitors at the port, who are a part of the bagging program, making sure that they count every bag when it comes off, when it gets onto the trains and into the trucks. They know where it's supposed to go. We have people who are at the provincial and county warehouses going in and checking the records and regularly spontaneously checking the actual bags on site so we can verify those records to the actual commodities. We were told by some South Korean political leaders, "We don't doubt that you can get the food to the people, but even once they get the food, then the North Koreans come and take it away, and they don't get to eat it. We've heard reports that the army will come and take the food away." My colleagues said, "You want us to watch all the people who eat it?" And they said, "Yes, we do." I said, "Hold on a minute." We know that they eat the food because we are able to visibly see the difference in children in these orphanages, children's homes and schools where the food is distributed, because children who get enough food have enough energy to play. That's the very unique thing about kids: When they don't have enough food, they don't play. [Diversion]
• Harvest in N.Korea
  A North Korean boy holds a spade in a corn field in area damaged by recent floods and typhoons in the Soksa-Ri collective farm in the South Hwanghae province September 29, 2011. It's getting late for North Korea to get the massive amount of food aid it claims to need before the harsh winter sets in. The country's dysfunctional food-distribution system, rising global commodities prices and sanctions imposed over Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programmes had contributed to what appears to be a hunger crisis in the North, even before devastating summer floods and typhoons compounded the emergency. [Aid weapon] [Victim]
• A View of Hunger in North Korea
  By KERRI MACDONALD October 7, 2011, 12:34 pm Damir Sagolj, a Bangkok-based Reuters photographer, was among a group of journalists invited last week by North Korea’s Economy and Trade Information Center to document the food crisis in the country’s farm belt. North Korea has appealed for food aid after a harsh winter and a series of summer floods and storms, but so far, only 30 percent of a United Nations aid target has been met. [Aid weapon] [Media] [EWA] [Victim]
• Special Report: Crisis grips North Korean rice bowl
  By Tim Large Fri Oct 7, 2011 7:47pm EDT HAEJU, North Korea (AlertNet) - In a pediatric hospital in North Korea's most productive farming province, children lay two to a bed. All showed signs of severe malnutrition: skin infections, patchy hair, listless apathy. "Their mothers have to bring them here on bicycles," said duty doctor Jang Kum Son in the Yellow Sea port city of Haeju. "We used to have an ambulance but it's completely broken down. One mother travelled 72 kilometers (45 miles). By the time they get here, it's often too late." [Victim] [Context]
• Seoul Cancels Flood Aid to N.Korea
  Seoul on Tuesday dropped attempts to send aid to victims of floods that hit North Korea's Hwanghae and Gangwon provinces this summer because the North ignored the offer. A Unification Ministry official said, "We repeatedly expressed our intention to send aid to North Korean flood victims, but the North made no response to our offer. There is no point waiting any longer, so we are terminating the process." The government had planned to deliver W5 billion (US$1=W1,194) worth of aid including 1.4 million cans of baby food, 300,000 bags of snacks, 1.92 million Choco Pies (chocolate coated marshmallows), and 1.6 million instant noodle bags to the North. Choco Pies are for some reason considered a delicacy in North Korea. Seoul sent a message to Pyongyang on Sept. 6 saying it wanted to deliver a first shipment of 200,000 cans of baby food, but there had been no response for nearly a month. "The North Korean regime has no intention of accepting any materials other than rice and cement," which can easily be diverted to the military to tighten its hold on power, a South Korean government official said. "The regime doesn't seem to care about the flood victims' suffering at all." [Aid weapon]

• UN releases video of North Korean children in hospital it says are badly nourished
  By Associated Press, Published: September 9 ROME — A U.N. food agency on Friday released grim footage of what it described as severely malnourished North Korean children in the country hit by recent flooding. The Rome-based World Food Program said it shot video at the Haeju Pediatric Hospital in the country’s western South Hwanghae province in mid-August. It shows health care workers pulling on the mottled, loose skin of a wailing child’s belly, and an image of an infant on an intravenous drip. Heavy rain and tropical storms have pounded the country in the past few months, leaving dozens of people dead or missing, displacing thousands of others and exacerbating chronic food shortages in rural areas. One-third of all children younger than 5 were already malnourished in the chronically hungry country, and “it is clear that many more are at risk of slipping into acute stages of malnutrition in the coming weeks and months if assistance is not provided urgently,” the organization said. International donors have been wary of providing assistance to Pyongyang because its political pariah status for its nuclear defiance and the possibility that funds could be diverted to the communist party elite and military. [Sanctions] [Media] [Inversion]
• North Korea readies for harvest as food aid flows in
  By Jeremy Laurence Fri Sep 2, 2011 11:28pm EDT WONJONG BORDER POST, North Korea (Reuters) - Impoverished North Korea appears to have emerged from the depths of a bad winter and late spring in reasonable shape, at least in the far north and south, where a variety of crops are nearly ready for harvest.

• N.Korea to Let S.Korean NGOs Monitor Aid Distribution
  North Korea has allowed South Korean non-governmental groups to monitor food aid distribution sites after Seoul made monitoring a precondition of resuming civilian aid to the country. The Unification Ministry says it received a video earlier this month from the Korean Council for Reconciliation and Cooperation that shows a flour distribution area in North Hwanghae Province. The Seoul-based organization has sent 1,000 tons of flour to the North since last month, and this is the first time an NGO has submitted this kind of evidence to the government. The government had asked for evidence amid concern that aid sent to the North is redirected to the elite and military instead to those who need it most. The government has also asked the NGOs for data related to the recent flood damage in the North.
• U.S. Decides to Offer Emergency Relief Goods to DPRK
  Pyongyang, August 19 (KCNA) -- The government of the United States of America decided to provide the flood-stricken DPRK with emergency relief goods.
• Russian Govt. Offers Food Aid to DPRK
  Pyongyang, August 19 (KCNA) -- The government of the Russian Federation decided to provide the DPRK with grant-in-aid of 50 000 tons of food. The first ship loaded with food arrived in Hungnam Port on Friday. Other aid ships are expected to come to the DPRK in the future. Food valuing at 5 million U.S. dollars donated by the Russian government through the WFP is also being provided to the DPRK. The free food aid to the DPRK by the Russian government is a manifestation of the traditional relations of friendship and cooperation between the governments and peoples of the two countries.
• North Korea: U.S. to Provide Up to $900,000 in Aid
  By REUTERS Published: August 18, 2011 The United States will provide North Korea with up to $900,000 in emergency flood assistance, the State Department said Thursday in what appeared to be another sign of easing tension between the North and Washington. The announcement follows a decision by South Korea to offer almost $5 million worth of food aid to North Korea to help it recover from summer floods. The Koreas and Washington have seen a flurry of diplomatic activity in the past several weeks as the United States gauges conditions for the resumption of six-party talks on ending North Korea’s nuclear arms program.
• NK allows NGOs high level of monitoring
  By Kim Young-jin North Korea has allowed South Korean civic workers a high level of access to oversee a recent delivery of flour, the head of a monitoring team said Thursday. Lee Woon-sik, who earlier this month led the team to Sariwon, a town south of Pyongyang, said they visited a daycare center and other facilities to make sure the flour was being distributed properly to the correct beneficiaries. The members of the team videotaped their inspection and delivered it to the Ministry of Unification responsible for approving such aid, he said. The remarks backed up Seoul’s assertion that it acquired unprecedented levels of access before allowing NGOs to deliver flour to the North, the first such assistance in eight months. It was the first trip to monitor the delivery of flour since November last year, when Seoul imposed a travel ban and cut off aid in response to Pyongyang’s shelling of Yeonpyeong Island. The Korean Council for Reconciliation and Cooperation plans to deliver a total of 2,500 tons of flour under the stricter system. Seoul believes the flour must be watched closely as it is easily diverted for military purposes. The North has agreed to complete detailed reports before and after delivery and allow the groups to make site visits to ensure provision to the intended targets, the ministry says. Analysts say Seoul may be inclined to continue aid to the North prompted by a slight easing of tensions after the sides held surprise denuclearization talks in Bali last month. The South has also offered to send government-level aid to the North in response to torrential summer rains that have claimed lives on both sides of the border. It would not include flour or cement as requested and is still pending North Korean acceptance. The ministry said it will view the taped monitoring trips before making an overall assessment of the system. The North has been calling for humanitarian aid for months warranted by reports of serious food shortages. In July the European Commission said it had won unprecedented monitoring access before agreeing to mobilize 10 million euros to help feed 650,000 people.
• International Aid to N.Korea Doubles
  In the first seven months of this year, the international community has almost doubled the amount of aid it sent to North Korea for all of 2010. More than US$45 million was spent from January to July, an increase of 183 percent from the whole of last year, said Voice of America, which cited the Seoul-based Korea Rural Economic Institute.
• EU Sends 200,000 Euros to N.Korea
  The EU has reportedly sent 200,000 euros in flood aid to North Korea through the Red Cross and Red Crescent. Voice of America reports the EU has made the announcement on Monday. The European commission on humanitarian aid said if the Red Cross requests more aid, it is willing to consider it after reviewing how much other donor countries are giving. Meanwhile, the UN has requested more information on the flood damage in the North since it concluded that the provided information is insufficient to decide whether to carry out a joint aid effort.
• Muifa Causes 10 Casualties, Crop Damage in N.Korea
  North Korea says it suffered at least 10 people dead or injured and thousands of hectares of cropland damaged as Tropical Storm Muifa swept across its territory Tuesday.
• Sweden to offer $2.9 mil. in medical aid to NK
  Sweden is planning to send medical aid worth $2.94 million to North Korea, the Voice of America reported Saturday. The supply of medical aid to the communist state will be made through European relief agencies such as Save the Children U.K., according to the report.
• North Korea reports damage, deaths from several days of heavy rain
  By Associated Press, Updated: Saturday, July 16, 12:09 PM SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea says heavy rains have flooded farmland, destroyed homes and caused some deaths. The Korean Central News Agency reported Saturday that rainfall hit several provinces from Tuesday through Friday. The report said rains drenched the city of Hamhung on Thursday and Friday “leaving dwelling houses destroyed and causing casualties.” The agency says rains also destroyed roads and stopped traffic. It also said that in one province rains submerged 24,700 acres (10,000 hectares) of farmland. The annual summer rainy season affects both North and South Korea. But it can be a bigger problem for the North given poor drainage and deforestation. Floods in 2007 left some 600 people dead or missing and about 100,000 others homeless. [Sanctions]
• Sweden, China Pledge US$2.6 Million for N. Korean Food Aid
  China and Sweden are reportedly working to send food aid to North Korea, which is suffering from extreme food shortages. According to the Voice of America on Wednesday, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency has pledged US$1.6 million to the World Food Programme, and China has provided US1 million. With these latest contributions, the WFP has secured a total of $38 million for the North Korean project. The humanitarian organization categorizes North Korea as a country with a moderately high level of malnourishment. Between 20 and 34 percent of its population are believed to be suffering from hunger.

• North Korea's Food Shortage 'We Cannot Leave the Children to Die'
  Bernd Göken / Cap Anamur Orphan children in the North Korean city of Haeju. An aid group leader has said sanctions harm the wrong people. Yet another hunger crisis is taking shape in North Korea. The government in Pyongyang has asked for help and aid groups have already begun shipments. Bernd Göken, from the German group Cap Anamur, described for SPIEGEL what he saw on a recent visit to the country. For reasons of data protection and privacy, your IP address will only be stored if you are a registered user of Facebook and you are currently logged in to the service. For more detailed information, please click on the "i" symbol. At the invitation of Pyongyang's embassy in Berlin, the head of the German relief organization Cap Anamur, Bernd Göken, 45, recently visited two provinces and four cities in North Korea, which is facing new food shortages and a dramatic hunger crisis. "With every visit and every discussion, the enormous scale of the shortages was confirmed," said Göken. "The people are starving. They have nothing left to eat. For the rural population and orphans, the shortage of food will become a real threat during the coming weeks." Cap Anamur experts say that only 20 percent of North Korean land is farmed. [Media] [Famine] [Inversion] [NGO]

• North Korea could be on verge of famine, smuggled video shows
  By Elizabeth Flock Footage shot inside North Korea has revealed that the country could be on the verge of a famine, showing filthy, homeless and orphaned children begging for scraps and soldiers stealing food from rice sellers. The video was shot over several months by an undercover North Korean journalist who smuggled the footage out to China and could face the death penalty. It was obtained by Australian Broadcasting Corp this week. [Famine] [Media]
• SPECIAL FOCUS: The Food Aid Dilemma
  Dear friends, You may have missed us these past few weeks, or you may have been glad that we did not clutter up your inbox so frequently. Some of us have been on travel, some of us have been working at jobs that generate income to keep us going, and one of us has been busy helping to propagate the next generation. We offer heartfelt congratulations to CanKor “Human Factor” editor Jack Kim, whose wife Sydney Choi has given birth to Sophia Penelope Yerin Kim on Satruday, 5 June 2011. [Aid weapon] [Sanctions]

• Civic Groups Send Aid to N.Korea
  On Monday, civic groups together with Gyeonggi Province and the city of Incheon delivered 25 tons of anti-malaria supplies to the North's border town of Kaesong and the Hwanghae provinces through a customs office north of Seoul. The supplies consist of pest repellents and medicine worth W162 million, which will be followed by more shipments of malaria diagnosis kits and medicine for pregnant women in early July (US$1=W1,098). Noting that infectious diseases like malaria do not respect national borders, officials expressed hope that the latest aid will lead to improved inter-Korean dialogue.
• Let them eat maize husks
  The politics of hunger in a brutal place May 12th 2011 | SEOUL | from the print edition ...IT IS the time of year when the previous harvest has been nearly eaten and the next one has just been planted. Time, in other words, to worry about North Korea’s perennially hungry masses. North Korea had long grown dependent on food handouts from its estranged brother, South Korea, and from the United States. But the South’s current president, Lee Myung-bak, has taken a tougher line, tying assistance to less provocative behaviour by Kim Jong Il’s nuclear-tipped regime. So Mr Kim’s envoys have travelled further afield of late, reportedly doing the rounds of Europe. [Sanctions] [Inversion] [Victim]
• UN says millions face starvation in NKorea, but SKorean critics say shortages are overblown
  By Associated Press, Published: May 10 | Updated: Wednesday, May 11, 4:03 PM SEOUL, South Korea — The U.N. says hunger is driving some North Koreans to eat more wild grass, and humanitarians are pressuring the U.S. and South Korea to send food. But South Koreans who study the North say the crisis has been overstated. American televangelist Franklin Graham, who has warned of famine and joined calls for more food aid, arrived in the North Korean capital Tuesday to discuss possible contributions from a Christian charity. After a visit there last month, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter blasted Washington and Seoul on the issue. The U.N. says hunger is driving some North Koreans to eat more wild grass, and humanitarians are pressuring the U.S. and South Korea to send food. But South Koreans who study the North say the crisis has been overstated. .“One of the most important human rights is to have food to eat, and for South Korea and the U.S. and others to deliberately withhold food aid to the North Korean people is really a human rights violation,” Carter said. [Sanctions]
• S.Korean Buddhists Deliver Aid to N.Korea
  South Korean officials say a group of Buddhists has visited North Korea to deliver medical aid to the impoverished country. An official of South Korea's Unification Ministry said 10 members of the Jogye Order, South Korea's largest Buddhist sect, crossed the heavily guarded border into North Korea Wednesday. The one-day visit was approved by the government in Seoul.
• UN launching emergency food aid program for 3.5 million in North Korea
  By Associated Press, Published: April 29 GENEVA — The World Food Program says it is launching an emergency operation to help feed 3.5 million people suffering from hunger in North Korea. A WFP spokeswoman says the global body believes food shortages have “led to a serious deterioration in the health of millions” in the East Asian country. .Emilia Casella says the harsh winter and poor vegetable crop last year have left North Korea with severe shortages of staple foods.

• 78% of N.Korean Defectors Never Saw Foreign Food Aid
  Some 78.2 percent of North Korean defectors never received any foreign grain aid when they lived in the North, a survey revealed Tuesday. The survey of 500 defectors by the Network for North Korean Democracy and Human Rights conducted on March 25-31 found that 391 or 78.2 percent never received food aid from South Korea or the international community. Of 106 respondents who did receive such aid, 29 said they returned whole or part of the aid.
• Joint statement on the deteriorating food security situation in North Korea
  Concern Worldwide (Ireland);
  Handicap International (Belgium);
  Save the Children (UK);
  Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation; and
  Triangle Generation Humanitaire (France) North Korea remains fragile in terms of food security even after the famine years of the 1990s and the vulnerable members of society are currently facing increasing shocks to their daily coping strategies leaving them on a knife edge. Indications now suggest that the food security situation is deteriorating at this time through a series of shocks which include: the longest continuous period of sub zero temperatures in sixty years with an adverse effect on the winter wheat germination and potato seed stocks for the new early season; exacerbated post harvest losses due to the heavy rains during last year’s harvest; the current outbreak of foot and mouth disease and the advent of the lean season all in the context of a chronically malnourished population.
• WFP/ FAO / UNICEF RAPID FOOD SECURITY ASSESSMENT MISSION TO THE DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF KOREA
  24 MARCH 2011 WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION UNICEF
  DPRK has suffered a series of shocks in recent months, leaving the country highly vulnerable to a food crisis. The Public Distribution System (PDS) will run out of food at the beginning of the lean season – May, June, July. This will substantially increase the risk of malnutrition and other diseases, particularly in food deficit counties. • More than six million vulnerable people are in urgent need of international food assistance, due to a substantial reduction of agricultural production and commercial imports, as well as a decrease or curtailment of bilateral assistance.
  
  • Most vulnerable to food insecurity are: children; pregnant and lactating women; elderly; large families with a high dependency ratio (i.e. few income earners, but many children and elderly dependants); people unable to work because of prolonged or chronic illnesses, particularly those with tuberculosis (TB); and people with disabilities.
  • The mission recommends provision of a total of 297,000 MT of cereals and 137,000 MT of fortified blended food to 6,100,000 vulnerable people. First priority is to assist vulnerable people living in the five most food-insecure northern and eastern provinces. Second priority is to assist vulnerable people living in the food deficit counties of the other provinces.
  • The PDS currently provides an average of 381 gm of rice and maize, equivalent to only 1314 kcal, which is about one-half the minimum daily energy requirement for DPRK.
  • PDS dependants are currently coping with reduced rations by relying on relatives living in rural areas; reducing the number of meals consumed in a day, decreasing the portion size; and increasing utilization of wild vegetables.
  • The total 2010/11 staple food production is approximately 4,252,000 MT. This figure is 232,000 MT below that reported by the 2010 CFSAM, mainly due to prolonged cold winter which will reduce the harvest of winter wheat, spring barley, and potato.
  • A higher than normal proportion of potato seed in winter storage has been damaged. The Mission estimates that the 2011 spring season production will be 60 percent of planned.
  • Production of pickled vegetables (kimchi) has been reduced due to the heavy rains in August and early September. Kimchi comprises an important food component of the diet, particularly in the winter months.
  • There is a cereal import requirement of 1,086,000 MT for the 2010/11 marketing year, which is 219,000 MT higher than the 867,000 MT anticipated by the CFSAM 2010.
  • The commercial import capacity of DPRK in 2010/11 has been reduced as a result of reductions in export earnings, as well as higher international food and fuel prices. The government currently plans to import 200,000 MT of cereals, a reduction of 125,000 MT from the 325,000 MT that was informed to the CFSAM mission in October 2010. As of end- January, the government had imported only 40,000 MT out of 200,000 MT in their revised plan.
  • The reduction of bilateral food assistance in recent years has had a substantial impact on food and nutrition security.
  • A package of health and nutrition interventions is needed for mothers and children in order to improve nutrition security.
  • Improved water supply and sanitation are needed in all baby homes, orphanages, primary and secondary boarding schools, as well as hospitals, nurseries, primary schools, hospitals, and rural clinics.
  • Agricultural interventions are needed to improve food security in the short and medium term, including potato storage and grain drying, as well as measures to address the Foot and Mouth Disease outbreak
  • Improved monitoring and reporting will be critical to ensure the effectiveness and efficiency of support provided.
• Two More Civic Groups to Send Humanitarian Aid to N.Korea
  Two additional South Korean civic groups have been granted governmental approval to send humanitarian aid to North Korea. Seoul's Unification Ministry said Monday that the Join Together Society and World Vision Korea will together send some US$162,000 worth of porridge and milk powder to children in the North Korean provinces of North Hwanghae and Yanggang via land and sea routes later this month. Seoul says it will continue to allow civilian-level transfers of humanitarian aid for vulnerable groups in the North such as women and children after carefully assessing factors such as the urgency of need and transparent distribution.
• N.Korea’s speaker asks Britain for food aid
  Choe Tae-bok, chairman of North Korea’s Supreme People’s Assembly, appealed for food aid from Britain, saying the upcoming two months would be the most difficult, the Voice of America reported Apr. 2. British lawmaker David Alton said in an interview with the VOA that Choe, who visited Britain from March 28 to 31 on an invitation from the British-North Korea All-Party Parliamentary Group, had requested food aid during meeting with British government officials. Among the European nations who are generally more open to providing aid to the North, France donated $210,000 to its charity group Premier Urgence to feed the most vulnerable in the North, the radio news network also reported. Meanwhile, the 12-member delegation of North Korea, comprising mid-level officials from the trade, agriculture and other ministries, toured Silicon Valley on Friday while their rare two-week trip to the U.S. on the invitation of the Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation at University of California, San Diego since March 19.
• Playing politics with food
  Dear friends, It was inevitable that the DPRK food crisis wasn't going to disappear so quickly, despite massive media attention to the drama unfolding in Japan and Libya. Three United Nations agencies (WFP, FAO, and UNICEF) returned from a Rapid Food Security Assessment Mission in mid-March, sounding the alarm that six million people may be in danger of famine this spring. They estimated that a total of $82.4 million will be required to respond to key humanitarian priorities, including $7 million for agriculture and food security projects. [Sanctions] [Aid weapon] [Collapse]
• Seoul Allows Humanitarian Aid to N.Korea to Resume
  The government said on Thursday it is allowing private South Korean groups to provide humanitarian aid for children and other vulnerable people in North Korea. "We decided to let private aid groups resume humanitarian aid, which was halted following the bombing of Yeonpyeong Island in November last year," the Unification Ministry said in a press release. It has already authorized a shipment of W336 million (US$1=W1,097) worth of tuberculosis medication by the Eugene Bell Foundation. The medicine will be delivered to some 500 patients in six tuberculosis clinics in Pyongyang and Pyongan Province. According to the ministry, seven aid groups have applied for permission to send W1.6 billion worth of thermal underwear, soy bean milk, bread and supplies to combat malaria. [Aid weapon]

• [Editorial] Food aid to N.Korea
  The United Nations recently issued a recommendation that the international community supply more than 430 thousand tons of emergency aid to more than six million North Koreans. The time has come for the South Korean government to provide aid, not only to relieve the suffering of fellow Koreans but also in consideration of the actions of the international community. [Aid weapon]
• North Korea: 6 Million Are Hungry
  By REUTERS Published: March 25, 2011 More than 6 million people in North Korea urgently need food aid because of substantial falls in domestic production, food imports and international aid, the United Nations said on Friday. In a report released after a joint mission to the North, where a famine in the 1990s killed an estimated 1 million people, three United Nations agencies said North Korea’s public distribution system would run out of food at the beginning of the lean season that runs between May and July.
• Food aid to N.Korea from U.S. could be on the horizon
  The U.S. has continued its stance that humanitarian aid should remain separate from politics By Kwon Tae-ho, Washington Correspondent The United States and the international community is reportedly actively responding to North Korea’s requests for food aid. The South Korean government, however, is still showing a lukewarm response. An international study team composed of bodies like the World Food Programme (WFP) and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reportedly held a report meeting for embassies and U.N. bodies in Pyongyang after completing a one-month study of the food situation in North Korea. The team plans to release the report within two weeks. Ahead of this, U.S. Representative to the FAO Ertharin Cousin, staying in Bangkok, said in a press conference Thursday that the body needs to judge whether aid is needed after confirming the exact situation.
• U.S. explores food aid to N.Korea
  The U.S. has made humanitarian assistance a separate issue in what some say is an attempt to bring Pyongyang back to dialogue » Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell, left, and U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Policy Stephen Bosworth, right, listen to questions from lawmakers during the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations hearing March 1. (Yonhap News Agency) By Kwon Tae-ho, Washington Correspondent The United States strongly hinted Tuesday (local time) that it would proceed conditionally with providing food aid to North Korea. “We do separate humanitarian assistance from political issues” said U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Policy Stephen Bosworth at a U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations hearing Tuesday with regard to the issue of food aid to North Korea. “We provide food aid when we see a perceived need and in a situation in which we can monitor how the food aid is used, who are the recipients of that food aid, and does it go to the people to whom we intend it.”
• Engaging North Korea on Mutual Interests in Tuberculosis Control
  By Sharon Perry, DPRK Tuberculosis Project Heidi Linton, Christian Friends of Korea Louise Gresham, Nuclear Threat Initiative Gary Schoolnik, Stanford School of Medicine Since the DPRK famines of the 1990s, the prevalence of tuberculosis (TB) has risen dramatically in North Korea. The spread rates are now among the highest in the world outside of sub-Saharan Africa. Launched in 2008, the DPRK Tuberculosis Project is a unique U.S.-based collaboration between a medical institution, a humanitarian NGO, and a non-profit sponsor that began working with the DPRK Ministry of Public Health to fight TB, especially drug-resistant strains, inside North Korea. Despite political deterioration of relations between the United States and North Korea over the last few years, the project has been able to continue their work and achieve important public health objectives in the country. [Aid] [Health] [Sanctions]
• U.S. Considers Resuming Food Aid to N.Korea
  The United States is considering resuming food aid to North Korea following reports that a severe food shortage could lead to malnutrition and starvation. Special envoy for North Korea Stephen Bosworth told the Senate Committee on Foreign relations Tuesday that North Korea has asked for U.S. food aid and that Washington is considering the request.
• NK asked Western diplomat for rice assistance: source
  North Korea has recently asked a visiting Western diplomat for rice assistance, a South Korean government source said Wednesday. The diplomat, from one of the European Union member countries, visited the communist nation in mid-February and was surprised when North Korean officials requested food aid, the source said "I did not hear of anyone who had died of starvation," the diplomat, however, was quoted as saying by the source who declined to have neither his name nor the diplomat's name specified in the media.

• US groups report alarming malnutrition in NKorea
  By MATTHEW PENNINGTON The Associated Press Wednesday, February 23, 2011; 4:25 PM WASHINGTON -- Severe food shortages are forcing some North Koreans to forage for wild grasses and herbs and causing alarming malnutrition among children, U.S.-based aid groups who recently visited the reclusive (sic) country reported Wednesday. Heavy rains and flooding in summer reduced vegetable crops by more than 50 percent in some areas, and a bitter winter has frozen up to 50 percent of wheat and barley due to be harvested in spring, the groups said in a joint statement. North Korean authorities estimate that food stocks will be exhausted by mid-June, they said. Seven experts from five nongovernment agencies - Christian Friends of Korea, Global Resource Services, Mercy Corps, Samaritan's Purse and World Vision - conducted a food needs assessment between Feb. 8-15 at North Korea's request (sic). They were granted "extraordinary access" to the provinces of North Pyongan, South Pyongan and Chagang, visiting 45 sites including hospitals, orphanages, homes, cooperative farms and warehouses. "The team observed children suffering from acute malnutrition," as well as evidence of stunted growth and hunger-induced listlessness, they said. The agencies recommended emergency food assistance targeting children, the elderly, the chronically ill, and pregnant and nursing mothers. North Korea has reportedly asked the United States and other nations to consider resuming food aid. North Korea has faced chronic food shortages due to economic mismanagement and natural disasters for the past two decades, and suffered a famine in the early and mid 1990s. The U.N. is also currently conducting a food [Cliché] [Sanctions] [Media] [Inversion]
• UN launches new assessment of NKorea food needs
  Network NewsX Profile By MATTHEW PENNINGTON The Associated Press Monday, February 14, 2011; 7:55 PM WASHINGTON -- The United Nations said Monday it had begun a new assessment of impoverished North Korea's food needs and planned more than 300,000 tons of humanitarian assistance, as an influential Republican senator warned the Obama administration against resuming such aid to the communist nation without adequate monitoring. Sen. Richard Lugar, the leading Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said any resumption should depend on ensuring that aid gets to hungry civilians rather than to the military, "whose care is already a priority over the rest of the population." [Aid weapon] [Diversion]
• [Editorial] N.Korea’s food impasse
  North Korea has reportedly agreed to allow access for investigations into its food situation in areas previously restricted. The investigations to be carried out by international organizations include a World Food Programme (WFP) investigation that began last week. Observers are anticipating that with a precise grasp on the country’s food demand and improved transparency in the distribution process, a quick resumption of food aid to North Korea may be possible. Recently, North Korean authorities have making visibly active efforts to mitigate the country’s food shortage. To begin with, the country made direct aid requests to different governments through its overseas diplomatic offices. It is very rare to see Pyongyang simultaneously requesting assistance from dozens of countries. In particular, it has asked the U.S. to resume the supply of 330 thousand tons of food aid that was halted in 2009. Washington began supplying 500 thousand tons of food aid to North Korea following an announcement in May 2008, but halted the effort following North Korea’s second nuclear weapons test, citing inadequate monitoring of the distribution process. North Korea also reportedly dispatched a large number of traders to China to procure food resources. Sources report that North Korea’s chronic food shortage has worsened due to factors such as United Nations sanctions, Seoul’s aid suspension, and rising international grain prices. [Sanctions]
• FAO/WFP CROP AND FOOD SECURITY ASSESSMENT MISSION TO THE DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF KOREA
  16 November 2010 Mission Highlights 1. OVERVIEW 2. OVERALL ECONOMIC SETTING AND AGRICULTURE IN DPRK 3. FOODCROP PRODUCTION IN 2010/11 4. FOOD SUPPLY/DEMAND BALANCE 2010/11 5. HOUSEHOLD FOOD SECURITY AND VULNERABILITY ANALYSIS 6. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FOLLOW-UP ACTIONS
• N.Korea 'Importing Animal Feed for Human Consumption'
  North Korea is reportedly importing animal feed grain from China to distribute on the market for human consumption as the regime struggles with food shortages. According to Radio Free Asia, Pyongyang gave the animal feed to its military as well as to merchants, bringing down the surging cost of rice. A source in North Korea said the feed is commonly darker in color than normal rice and is often mixed with chaff and stones. The U.S.-based broadcaster said lower prices caused by several natural disasters in China last year allowed the North to import a vast quantity of low-quality animal feed for its people to consume, stirring mixed responses from North Koreans. [Sanctions]

• 'North Korean rice prices doubled'
  Rice and corn prices in North Korea have more than doubled from 1,200 won to 2,500 won and from 400 won to 1,000 won per bag, respectively, since early January, the Open Radio for North Korea reported Wednesday, quoting sources in Hyesan, Yanggang Province in the North. Rice prices began to rise suddenly as production decreased sharply due to floods, the report said. Moreover, there has been no food aid from foreign countries since the North’s shelling of South Korea’s Yeonpyeong Island near the western sea border last November, it said. [Sanctions]

• UN says Korea aid scheme close to failure
  By Kevin Brown in Singapore Published: December 12 2010 16:25 | Last updated: December 12 2010 16:25 A UN aid programme that is supposed to provide food supplements to 2m children and pregnant women in North Korea is reaching less than half the target population and is likely to close within months because western funding has dried up. Kenro Oshidari, the UN World Food Programme’s Asia regional director, said the essential nutritional supplements programme was 80 per cent unfunded because of a dispute over North Korean restrictions on western monitoring of how the aid was used. “We are seriously suffering a lack of donor funding,” Mr Oshidari told the Financial Times in an interview in Singapore. “It’s not donor fatigue. I don’t want to use the word political but there are a lot of different kinds of concern about that country and so there is some hesitancy on the part of donors to give in any major terms right now.” Mr Oshidari said the WFP was pressing hard for additional funding from western governments but had received support only from Switzerland, Brazil, Norway and the UN’s central emergency response fund. Traditional donors such as the US, Canada and Australia have refused to help because of restrictions on WFP monitoring, including a ban on the use of Korean speakers and limits on freedom of movement. However, Mr Oshidari said the WFP was confident that the aid was not being diverted to the North Korean military or other arms of the state because it was mainly distributed through civil institutions such as kindergartens, hospitals and nurseries. “This is easier to monitor [than less-targeted aid programmes] because you can go and visit these institutions and make sure they are receiving food and people are eating it,” he said. The programme, launched in June, was intended to help just over 2m children and mothers over two years but reached only 777,000 in November, the WFP said. A further 450,000 adults were to be assisted through a separate scheme under which they would be paid in food for working on small infrastructure projects but this scheme is not operational. The WFP has long had a problem with funding in North Korea, where it has gradually had to scale down its aid work as the country’s confrontation with the west intensified. A broad aid programme that ended in mid-2008 was followed in September that year by an emergency relief effort after serious floods, and then by a limited nutritional scheme aimed mainly at women and children from mid-2009. That scheme ended in June amid funding crisis worries. The current programme, which has a notional budget of $96m over two years from July, is also tightly focused on nutritional supplements, but has struggled for support with only about $20m raised so far. North Korea’s secretive communist regime has become gradually more isolated since staging its second nuclear test in May 2009, with South Korea cutting off all but emergency aid. Donor sympathy was tested further by North Korea’s shelling of a South Korean island last month. Mr Oshidari said the WFP was “continuously speaking to our donors” but to little effect. “I believe we may need to have a higher level [of talks], maybe a round-table or something with our donors, because eventually it will come to a point where will just have to close down,” he said. “We can keep going for another six months, maximum. If no further contribution comes in the next six months then there is a realistic possibility that we will have no food and no reason to be there.” North Korea is forecast by the UN to suffer a shortfall of almost 550,000 tonnes of food this year, after accounting for imports. Long-term food shortages have had a significant impact on health and development, with one in three children suffering stunted growth and irreversible learning difficulties. [Aid weapon] [Sanctions]

• FAO/WFP crop and food security assessment mission to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
  In DPRK, including the estimates for the 2010 main season harvest and forecast for the 2011 early season crops, a total of 5.33 million tonnes of staple food production from the cooperative farms, individual plots on sloping land and household gardens for 2010/11 is expected. This is about 3 percent higher than in 2009/10. When paddy is converted to milled rice, the above total production comes to 4.48 million tonnes. A substantial increase in production was expected due to some improvements in the availability of fertilizer, pesticides, operational tractors, diesel and electricity. This expectation, however, was frustrated by some adverse weather events. The winter of 2009/10 was unusually severe and prolonged which resulted in a low survival rate of winter wheat and delays in planting of spring crops and transplanting of main season paddy. Also, unusually intense rainstorms hit most of the country in late August and early September, causing localised flooding, crop loss and structural damage to irrigation canals and dams. Despite the relatively good harvest, based on the Mission’s estimate of total utilization needs of 5.35 million tonnes of cereal equivalent (rice in milled terms), there is an import requirement of 867 000 tonnes for the 2010/11 marketing year (November/October). According to the Ministry of Agriculture, 325 000 tonnes of commercial imports are planned for the upcoming marketing year. This seems to be in line with the commercial imports during the previous year. Thus, the Mission estimates an uncovered food deficit of 542 000 tonnes for the 2010/11 marketing year. In 2009/10 a large number of low income non-farming households faced a significant food consumption gap as the cereals received from the public distribution system (PDS) provided only about half the daily caloric requirement on average. The deficit was unlikely to have been fully covered by other foods due to low purchasing power of these households. Despite the overall large deficit in the food supply, food supplementation for children and women plus the child survival programmes in place have contributed to reduced rates of malnutrion. Given that the overall food production situation in 2010/11 is not expected to improve significantly, the Mission recommends the provision of international food assistance to about 5 million most vulnerable people (including groups with special needs such as children, pregnant and lactating women and the elderly with no support and PDS dependent populations in high malnutrition and mountainous regions), amounting to 305 000 tonnes of cereals. The planned commercial imports and recommended food assistance do not fill the entire uncovered food deficit leaving a gap of 237 000 tonnes of cereals. The Mission highlights the importance of meeting this gap to ensure adequate food is available. Should the Government not have the capacity to meet the gap through additional imports, these efforts can be supported by the international agencies and bilateral donors. Furthermore, efforts should be made to provide soybeans and other pulses as part of the food assistance to increase the nutritive content of the diet. In order to improve food security in the short to medium term, the Mission also makes recommendations for national and international support for - (i) potato storage and grain drying facilities to reduce losses and improve food safety, (ii) improvement in production of protein rich commodities such as pulses and fish (from aquaculture), and (iii) general assistance to private household garden production. [Food] [Omission] [UNUS]
• U.N. Urges Food Aid for North Korea
  By MARK McDONALD and KEVIN DREW Published: November 17, 2010 SEOUL, South Korea — Despite a relatively good autumn harvest, North Korea remains in dire need of food aid, especially for its youngest children, pregnant women and the elderly, according to two United Nations agencies. In a new joint report, the World Food Program and the Food and Agriculture Organization said that North Korea, even after substantial imports, would have a shortfall in staple crops — mostly rice, grains and soybeans — of more than half a million tons. The 2010 harvest was 3 percent higher than last year’s, the agencies said, despite an unusually harsh winter and alternating drought and flood conditions over the summer. But even in the best of years, North Korea is unable to feed itself. Government food distribution provides only half the necessary daily calories, the report said. People are thus left to fend for themselves with small hillside plots and kitchen gardens, and by buying food or bartering for it on the black market. Officials have estimated that the food aid program for North Korea is underfinanced by 80 percent and that nearly half the country’s children are malnourished. “I saw a lot of children already losing the battle against malnutrition,” said Josette Sheeran, executive director of the World Food Program, after a visit to North Korea this month. “Their bodies and minds are stunted, and so we really feel the need there.”
• UN predicts NKorea's food shortage will continue
  The Associated Press Tuesday, November 16, 2010; 10:02 PM SEOUL, South Korea -- The United Nations says that a majority of North Korea's 24 million people will likely be without enough food next year unless there is outside help. The Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Food Program said in a joint statement Tuesday that the North's food production this year showed only a marginal improvement over last year. The statement says the country's expected food supply shortage for the next year will be 867,000 tons. That's similar to previous years. But it says the North only plans to buy 325,000 tons of food for the period. The U.N. says North Koreans' expected cereal rations will be much below their needs. The U.N. agencies recently visited North Korea to look at the food situation.
• Medicines unavailable/in short supply in DPRK due to sanctions/financial constraints
  List provided by Kim Man Yu hospital in Pyongyang, 10 November 2010 [Sanctions]
• UN: Less rain, aid to hurt North Koreans
  By ANITA SNOW The Associated Press Friday, October 29, 2010; 5:52 PM UNITED NATIONS -- A predicted rainfall shortage in some parts of North Korea, combined with reduced food aid this year, will have an "alarming" effect on the nutrition of the nation's young children and pregnant and lactating women, the U.N. Secretary-General warned Friday. Ban Ki-moon told U.N. member nations in a report on North Korea's human rights situation that rainfall in some areas of the country is expected to be 18 percent lower this year than in 2009, despite torrential downpours and flooding that hit the country's west on Aug. 20. [Spin] [Ban Ki-moon] [Victim]

• My Bumpy Road to Pyongyang
  By Erich Weingartner When I was summoned to the office of my new boss, the other staff looked at me as though I was about to enter a lion’s den. I paused at the door, took a deep breath, and entered. I wanted to make a good impression in my first meeting with the UN World Food Programme (WFP) DPRK Country Director. She was reading a file on her desk when I came in. Not certain if she had noticed me, I knocked on the open door. “Close the door and sit down!” she snapped, without looking up.
• N.Korea Demands Massive Aid in Return for Family Reunions
  North Korea has asked South Korea for 500,000 tons of rice and 300,000 tons of fertilizer during Red Cross talks about the reunions of families separated by the Korean War. The talks in Kaesong on Tuesday and Wednesday have already seen a North Korean call for the resumption of lucrative package tours to the Mt. Kumgang resort before reunions take place. But the South Korean said the two issues have nothing to do with one another. [Overtures] [Aid weapon]
• Rice Aid Heads to N.Korea
  South Korea is sending humanitarian aid in the form of rice to flood-stricken North Korea on Monday. A ship carrying 5,000 tons of rice leaves South Korea's Gunsan port on Monday afternoon for China's Dandong Port before being carried to the North Korean city of Shinuiju by truck. It is part of a series of humanitarian assistance shipments by South Korean aid groups to the impoverished state. Seoul's stance on aid to North Korea remains that overall inter-Korean relations must first be considered before large-scale food and fertilizer aid is resumed. However the South Korean government has been allowing smaller-scale shipments including rice and other necessities by aid groups. {Aid weapon] [Rice surplus]
• Food shortage in NK reaches 1.5 million tons
  By Kim Se-jeong North Korea is in need of about 1.5 million tons of food this year to feed its 24 million people, U.N. organizations said.
• N.Korea on UN List of Countries in 'Protracted Food Crisis'
  Twenty two countries including North Korea suffer from "protracted food crisis" leaving some 166 million people in chronic starvation, according to a report released Wednesday by the UN Food and Agricultural Organization and the World Food Programme. "This unacceptably high degree of hunger results from many factors, including armed conflict and natural disasters, often in combination with weak governance or public administration, scarce resources, unsustainable livelihoods systems and breakdown of local institutions," the report said. "Faced with so many obstacles, it is little wonder that protracted crises can become a self-perpetuating vicious cycle." Chronic starvation and malnutrition are considered to occur when people are unable to consume an average of at least 1,800 calories per day. The report said, "While humanitarian emergencies clearly require rapid assessments of needs, protracted crises require analysis that is both broader and deeper," as well as long-term solutions, including efforts to make such countries more self-sufficient in food supply. The other 21 countries on the list are Afghanistan, Angola, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Ivory Coast, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Guinea, Haiti, Iraq, Kenya, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Tajikistan, Uganda and Zimbabwe. [Inversion] [Spin] [Incompetence] [Decline] [Sanctions] [Agency]

• 5,000 Tons of Rice to Be Shipped to N.Korea by Late Oct.
  A ship carrying 5,000 tons of rice the South Korean Red Cross is sending to help North Korean flood victims will leave Gunsan Port on Oct. 25, a Unification Ministry official said Sunday
• S.Korea, U.S. Kick Off Joint Military Drills
  South Korea and the U.S. begin joint naval exercises on Monday. The five-day drills are aimed at sending a strong message of deterrence to North Korea for its torpedo attack on the South Korean Naval corvette Cheonan in March. The exercises had originally been scheduled to take place earlier this month but were rescheduled due to Typhoon Malou. [Joint US military] [Buildup]
• N.Korean Military 'Sitting on 1 Million Tons of Rice'
  Despite a dire food shortage and devastating recent floods, the North Korean military reportedly is keeping more than 1 million tons of rice in storage. In a party caucus at the National Assembly on Thursday, Grand National Party floor leader Kim Moo-sung said calls for humanitarian food aid for the North are "inappropriate" at a time when the North "has as much as 1 million tons of rice in storage in preparation for war. We have to take this into consideration." The figure apparently comes from a report by the National Intelligence Service for the ruling-party leadership. South Korea worries about a rice surplus when it stores only about 1.49 million tons this year. If it is true that the North is really holding back 1 million tons of rice for the military, it could have a profound effect on the ongoing debate over whether to increase aid for the North. [Spin] [Double standards]
• Flood Aid Delivered to N.Korea
  The first round of emergency aid for the victims of recent flooding in North Korea was delivered on Thursday morning. Gyeonggi Province and various non-governmental groups transported 530 tons of flour through the Dorasan immigration office at around 10 a.m. Various groups have expressed their intent to provide aid to the North after the South Korean Red Cross announced it would send rice and cement to help the communist country recover from the floods.
• N.Korea 'Must Apologize Over Cheonan If Aid Is to Resume'
  The future of inter-Korean relations depends on whether North Korea apologizes for sinking the South Korean Navy corvette Cheonan, the presidential secretary for national strategy Kim Tae-hyo said Wednesday. He was speaking in a defense seminar held at the War Memorial of Korea on Wednesday. The seminar was held under the co-sponsorship of the Korea Defense and Security Forum, the National Assembly Northeast Asia Peace and Security Forum, and the Ilmin International Relations Institute at Korea University. Kim insisted the government's "firm principle" to subject North Korea to sanctions announced on May 24 "remains in place." "If inter-Korean economic cooperation is to be possible, the North needs to admit its responsibility for the sinking of the Cheonan and take responsible action," he said. "An apology for the sinking is a precondition to substantial humanitarian aid to the North." He added the resumption of the six-party nuclear talks is also dependent on how determined and sincere the North is in resolving the issues. [Cheonan] [Aid weapon] [Six Party Talks]
• $10M in rice, ramen being sent to Sinuiju
  September 14, 2010 South Korea will send $10 million worth of humanitarian aid to North Korea, including 5,000 tons of rice, 10,000 tons of cement and three million cups of instant noodles. “The aid will be sent to Sinuiju,” said Yoo Chong-ha, president of the South Korean Red Cross, yesterday, referring to the city devastated by torrential rains and heavy flooding in recent months. The rice will be sent in five-kilogram (11-pound) packages for widespread distribution. The Red Cross calculates there are roughly 80,000 to 90,000 Sinuiju residents in need of help and the aid could provide them with provisions for at least three months.
• Seoul Mulls Ways to Ensure Aid Reaches Needy N.Koreans
  The government is considering sending rice flour and noodles to North Korea as aid for flood victims in a bid to prevent it from being diverted to the military, an official said Monday. The plans are being studied after the North asked for rice, cement and heavy equipment for flood relief operations. "Rice can be stored for a long time and is easy to divert to the military," the official said. "But rice flour or noodles are harder to store for longer and are more likely to be given to the victims instead of being transported to military warehouses." The government offered the North 10,000 tons of corn following the reunion of separated families on the occasion of Chuseok or Korean Thanksgiving last year reportedly because this was less likely to be used for military rations. North Korean defectors say they were rarely given any rice supplied by the South, while rice bags with the lettering of the South Korean Red Cross stamped on were seen in military facilities close to the heavily armed border. During the famine in the late 1990s, the North received corn flour aid from the U.S which the authorities then distributed through ration stations, a defector recalls. But processing over 100,000 tons of rice into flour and other products may not be realistic as it would cost a lot of time and money, a Unification Ministry official said. [Diversion] [Aid weapon] [Media]
• S.KOREA FARMERS DEMAND RICE SHIPMENT TO N.KOREA
  Agence France-Presse (Seoul, 2010/09/10) reported that thousands of ROK farmers rallied Friday, demanding the government stop a fall in rice prices by shipping surplus stocks in state silos to the DPRK. The farmers urged President Lee Myung-Bak to resume an annual shipment of 400,000 tonnes of rice to the DPRK, which suffers severe food shortages. The shipment was suspended in 2008 as relations soured. "Resuming rice aid to North Korea is a short cut to stabilising rice prices and also improving inter-Korean ties," league spokesman Kang Suk-Chan told AFP.
• Lee administration considers N.Korea’s aid request
  Observers say N.Korea may be exploring S.Korea’s overall position on sending aid By Son Won-je, Staff Writer North Korea made an official request to South Korea through the Red Cross for rice, heavy equipment and cement as aid to recover from recent floods. The South Korean government is strongly considering the request. [Aid weapon] [SK NK policy]
• N.Korea Asks for Rice, Cement, Heavy Equipment
  North Korea wants rice and materials to repair flood damage such as cement and heavy equipment from South Korea, it was said in a message Saturday. The Unification Ministry on Tuesday said the message came from the North Korean Red Cross and was sent to its South Korean counterpart after the South offered some W10 billion in flood relief (US$1=W1,179).
  But Seoul is less keen to provide rice and building materials since such aid has been put on hold as part of sanctions after the North sank the South Korean Navy corvette Cheonan since the North has a history of diverting such aid to the military [Aid weapon] [Diversion] [Media]
• Aid to N.Korea Could Be a Way Out of Deadlock
  North Korea in a message to the South Korean Red Cross on Saturday asked for rice as well as cement, vehicles and heavy construction equipment for flood relief operations. The request follows offers by the South Korean Red Cross on Aug. 26 and 31 to send W10 billion (US$1=W1,179) worth of emergency food supplies, basic necessities and medicine. North Korea on Tuesday also released seven South Korean fishermen who were captured on Aug. 8.
• DPRK Affected by Typhoon
  Pyongyang, September 2 (KCNA) -- Many areas of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea have been struck by torrential rains and windstorms in consequence of Typhoon No. 7 moving towards the East Korean Bay from the northeastern sea of the Philippines.
• U.S. Offers Flood Aid to N.Korea
  The United States is offering $750,000 in emergency aid to North Korea to help aid recovery from devastating floods. The U.S. Special Envoy for North Korea Human Rights, Robert King, told VOA Wednesday that the money will be given to three U.S. non-governmental organizations -- Samaritan's Purse, Global Resource Services, and Mercy Corps [NGO] [Aid weapon]
• Red Cross in DPR Korea
  In the DPRK, IFRC support to DPRK Red Cross Society focuses on:
  For more information, please contact: Finn-Jarle Rode Head of IFRC office in DPR of Korea Ryonhwa-1 dong, Central District Pyongyang, DPR of Korea Tel: +850 2 381 4350 Email: finnjarle.rode@ifrc.org
• IFRC in DPRK
  International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies webpage on DPRK
• IFRC on DPRK Floods
  27 August 2010 The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent (IFRC) Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF) is a source of un-earmarked money created by the Federation in 1985 to ensure that immediate financial support is available for Red Cross and Red Crescent emergency response. The DREF is a vital part of the International Federation’s disaster response system and increases the ability of National Societies to respond to disasters. CHF 378,714 (USD 368,750 or EUR 290,129) has been allocated from the IFRC’s Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF) to support the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea Red Cross Society in delivering immediate assistance to some 16,000 beneficiaries. Unearmarked funds to repay DREF are encouraged.
• Red Cross mobilizes amid severe flooding
  1 September 2010 Francis Markus, IFRC, Beijing It’s normally a busy city on the border between the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) and China, but over the last few days, the town of Sinuiju has been transformed into an expanse of muddy water, with more than 23,000 people forced to evacuate their homes. Local people say it’s the worst flooding the area has experienced for 15 years. Schools and other public buildings have been packed, not just with residents of the city and surrounding districts but also with the inhabitants of several offshore islands who have been evacuated to the relative safety of these temporary resettlement camps.

• UN WFP FEEDING FEWER N. KOREAN CHILDREN AS DONATION SHRINKS: DIRECTOR
  Yonhap (Sam Kim, Seoul, 2010/08/26) reported that the World Food Program is struggling to keep its project of feeding malnourished children in the DPRK from shrinking, its director for the communist state said in an interview on Thursday. Torben Due, who represents the WFP office in Pyongyang, said his organization set out to raise US$500 million two years ago to provide basic nutrition for DPRK children. In reality, what the WFP ended up with was $100 million. "We had to reduce (our program) because we could see we would not get the money. We had to design a program small and realistic in terms of what we would be able to do," he said.
• N.Korea faces rising food shortage, sources say
  Observers say low crop yields, market restrictions and suspended aid have contributed to the shortage
  » In this photo released by U.N. World Food Programme on July 30, 2008, malnourished children are seen at an orphanage in Chongjin City, North Hamgyong Province, North Korea June 20, 2008.(AP Photo) By Son Won-je It has come to light that North Korea is experiencing a considerable drop in its yield of summer grains like potatoes, wheat, and barley due to unseasonably low temperatures this past spring. Observers are predicting that the country’s food shortage will worsen as the summer crop yield falls on the heels of last year’s drop in food production. A source connected to North Korean affairs said Thursday that a drop in the country’s summer crop yields was forecasted in the wake of low temperatures of some 9.3 degrees below average in April. “The North Korean food shortage is expected to become more severe as this combines with measures taken by the South Korean government following the Cheonan’s sinking, including the cessation of trade with and aid to North Korea,” the source said. The source also said that North Korea was making efforts to resolve the problem itself by encouraging yields through national agriculture competitions, commencing operation of the Namhung Youth Chemical Complex fertilizer factory, and running provincial food processing plants. Those efforts, however, showed “limitations in their results.” [Sanctions] [Spin]
• N.Korean Regime Passes Buck in Flood Relief
  The North Korean regime is trying to pass the brunt of helping victims of the latest flood in the Sinuiju region to ordinary people, Radio Free North Korea reported on Tuesday. It quoted a source in Hoeryong, North Hamgyong Province as saying the North Korean Workers Party has instructed party members nationwide to take the lead in efforts to bring emergency relief to flood victims. "Party committees in workplaces convened emergency meetings on Monday morning to relay the party's instructions urging members to send food, clothes or kitchen utensils to people in flood-hit regions," a North Korean source said. [Media]
• S.Korea Should Help N.Korean Flood Victims
  Ahn Sang-soo, the chairman of the ruling Grand National Party, met with senior government officials on Sunday and urged the resumption of food aid to North Korea after devastating floods there. When word spread that the head of the GNP made those comments, the Democratic Party, Democratic Labor Party and even the traditionally conservative Liberty Forward Party lined up to offer their support. But the Unification Ministry said Monday there are "currently no plans" to send rice aid. Cheong Wa Dae also said it is not looking into the matter at present.
• China to Send Aid for N.Korean Flood Victims
  The Chinese government has offered emergency aid to North Koreans hit by recent flooding, North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency said Wednesday. Shinuiju, a border city with China in North Pyongan Province, and surrounding farms were inundated by heavy rains over the last weekend. The agency did not elaborate the scale of the aid. KCNA added that Chinese President Hu Jintao expressed sympathy for the victims of the flooding in a message to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. The U.S. government-sponsored broadcaster Radio Free Asia said Wednesday that North Korea requested emergency aid from the UN to cope with the flooding.
• N.Korea requests emergency aid from UN
  The S.Korean government has recently faced increasing bipartisan calls for resuming rice aid
  By Lee Je-hoon, Staff writer The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reported that North Korea officially requested emergency aid from the United Nations on Tuesday. North Korea has been suffering from serious flood damage due to the overflowing of the Amnok River, and the inundation of Sinuiju. The U.S. government announced that it is prepared to help if it receives a request from North Korea. In addition, Citizens’ Campaign for Sending Unification Rice to Realize Peace on the Korean Peninsula, a group including farmer groups and the five opposition parties, urged the government on Wednesday to immediately resume rice aid to North Korea.
• Chinese Govt Decides to Provide Relief Materials to DPRK
  Pyongyang, August 25 (KCNA) -- The Chinese government decided to provide emergency relief materials to the DPRK in connection with the fact that some areas of the DPRK including Sinuiju, North Phyongan Province, were hit by flood recently. This measure will encourage the Korean people in their efforts to recover from the flood damage as early as possible and more energetically step up the building of a thriving nation.
• Rice donations to North discussed
  August 24, 2010 The harvest begins at farmer Ju In-gap’s rice paddies in Jeonyang village of Gangseo District, Busan, yesterday. [NEWSIS] South Korea's government and ruling party are discussing resuming food aid to North Korea - which was halted due to deteriorating inter-Korean relations - to improve relations with Pyongyang and control a rising rice surplus (sic) , lawmakers said yesterday
• Flood Damage Confirmed Serious
  Pyongyang, August 5 (KCNA) -- It has been ascertained that torrential rains in July did a great deal of damage to people's living, railway transport, agriculture and other economic sectors in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. According to information available in a relevant organ, some 5,560 dwelling houses and more than 350 public buildings and production-related facilities were destroyed or inundated and some 14,850 hectares of farmland submerged, buried or washed away in the country.
• Research Institute For North Korean Society .
  What Does Good Friends USA Do?
  Please become a good friend of the Good Friends Good Friends- An International NGO for Peace, Human Rights and Refugees Good Friends provides relief works for international refugees to become all lives’ friends, peace movement to fundamentally resolve disputes and conflicts that human beings face, and human rights movement to protect human rights. Good Friends has been providing information on food shortages in North Korea, raising funds for humanitarian assistance, dispatching activists to national border areas between China and DPRK and having them investigate local situations, and publishing reports on food shortages in North Korea. Currently, Good Friends is making efforts to improve humanitarian and human rights situation of North Korean people and to inform this situation to the international community by: 1) Collecting information on food shortages, public health conditions, education, the basic necessities situations and inform humanitarian organizations so that they can support North Korean people effectively. 2) Reporting the current human rights situation in North Korea where rights duly protected by law are being violated; assessing incidents of human rights violations in the process of arrest, punishment, and imprisonment and informing international communities; and requesting that the North Korean Government act to improve human rights. 3) Investigating the current situations of North Korean refugees in China, and providing protections and aid for them and their children in particular. For these purposes, Good Friends USA publishes the weekly newsletter North Korea Today to inform the international public. [NGO]
• North Korea Urgently Needs Food and Medicine, Rights Group Says
  By CHOE SANG-HUN Published: July 15, 2010 SEOUL, South Korea — North Korean doctors perform operations without anesthesia in clinics where hypodermic needles are not sterilized and sheets are not washed, the human rights group Amnesty International said in a report released on Thursday. [Sanctions] [Disinformation] [Victim] [NGO]
• The crumbling state of health care in North Korea
  In the early 1990s, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK or North Korea) faced a famine that killed up to one million people in a population that at the time hovered around 22 million (the current population stands at 23.9 million).2 Food shortages and a more general economic crisis have persisted to this day. The government has resolutely maintained that it is committed to, and capable of, providing for the basic needs of its people and satisfying their right to food and a proper standard of health. The testimonies presented in this report suggest otherwise. [Sanctions] [Victim] [Media] [NGO]
• North Korea's desperate measures
  By Donald Kirk WASHINGTON - Behind brave blasts of bombast and bluster, North Korea has one urgent reason for wanting to renew six-party talks on its nuclear program and separate meetings with an American general at the truce village of Panmunjom. The overwhelming problem for the North is the nation is now on the verge of its worst famine since the mid-1990s when approximately two million people are believed to have died of starvation and disease. "Food shortages and a more general economic crisis have persisted to this day," according to a report released this week by Amnesty International. The North's "delayed and inadequate response to the food crisis has significantly affected people's health". [Media] [Sanctions]
• Critique of AI Report: The Crumbling State of Health Care in North Korea
  by Marilyn Weingartner, retired Public Health Nurse, 4 August 2010:
  At the end of April, World Health Organization Director General Dr. Margaret Chan visited Pyongyang and came back with a report that seemed to praise the DPRK for its universal health care system. (Read: Press briefing at WHO headquarters, Geneva) Her report has been widely criticized for painting too pretty a picture of realities on the ground in North Korea. Indeed, she should have been more careful about commenting on the size and weight of people she observed on the street in Pyongyang. Surely the lack of obesity Dr. Chan observed cannot be attributed only to the fact that North Koreans do a lot of walking!
  Initially, I was pleased that the urgent issue of health care has been getting the attention it deserves and needs. But as I read the AI report, I couldn’t help getting angry, not at the DPRK regime, but at the writers of the AI report, who in my estimation have missed a golden opportunity to do something positive for the people of North Korea. As a health care worker who lived and worked in the health sector in the DPRK from 1997 to 1999, I have seen the best and the worst imaginable. I can relate to the conditions described in the AI report, because much of what is written there I have experienced with my own eyes. But what is the purpose of this report? How does this report differ from the one Amnesty has already issued in 2004? Why now?
  The report reminds us that most potential donors withhold aid because it “would not reach those in greatest need.” Yet there is no mention of the sanctions in place—some of them since the Korean War—that directly impact the provision of assistance even if access problems were completely resolved. One of these is a ban on “dual-use” exports (i.e., civilian goods that could be adapted to military purposes), which directly affects medical equipment. The Amnesty report blames Pyongyang for a shortage of syringes at hospitals. In the 1990s Iraq suffered from a similar shortage because of concerns that they might contribute to Iraq’s WMD programs. Supplies of syringes were held up for half a year because of fears they might be used in creating anthrax spores. Tens of thousands of Iraqi children died as a result. Why does Amnesty not draw attention to this devious political tactic as a human rights issue? References to the DPRK’s “economic problems” over-simplify the effects of international sanctions and isolationist policies on the capacity of the country to re-build and restore the elements needed for a functioning health care system. I use the word “restore” because, as Dr. Chan tried to clarify (unfortunately rather awkwardly), the elements are there. Clinics, for example, are present down to the smallest “ri” (county). But the clinics are bare, cold, and the staff are out in the fields trying to make ends meet and to feed their families. When the AI report exhorts the DPRK that “Functioning public health and health-care facilities, goods and services, as well as programmes, have to be available in sufficient quantity within the State party” the report shows the kind of disrespect that has turned well-meaning North Korean health care workers against some of the NGOs that previously worked in the DPRK. One experienced MD of my acquaintance stopped going to workshops because he was personally offended by a young foreign NGO worker who tried to lecture him about how to run the pharmacy at his hospital.
  Will the Amnesty report lead Canada to establish exchange programmes for health care workers, so that they can visit our facilities, so they can upgrade their knowledge base, or even just to learn English? Or will the report simply confirm to the Canadian Government that limiting resources and access to the DPRK is a reasonable policy? During the Nutritional Survey of 1998 the driver of my team emphasized to me that if there were 1 bean and 5 Koreans, that bean would be divided among them. Today, unfortunately, the old song about “nothing from nothing is nothing” is as true as ever. [Sanctions] [Media] [Disinformation] [NGO]
• The real story on North Korea and its healthcare
  July 21, 2010 By Stephen Gowans
  The United States has announced that it is adding a new tranche to the Himalaya of sanctions it has built up since 1950 against North Korea, sanctions I outlined in my last article Amnesty International botches blame for North Korea’s crumbling healthcare. Calling the new sanctions “measures” – perhaps to escape the disfavor the word has fallen into after sanctions wiped out the lives of half of million Iraqi children in the 1990s — US secretary of state Hillary Clinton purred reassuringly that the new “measures are not directed at the people of North Korea.” [1] She didn’t predict, however, whether they would add to the misery the previous umpteenth round of sanctions has already visited upon the lives of North Koreans, even if she says they aren’t directed at them, but we can be pretty sure they will. [Sanctions] [Disinformation] [Inversion] [Victim]
• Amnesty International botches blame for North Korea’s crumbling healthcare
  July 20, 2010 “Economic sanctions are, at their core, a war against public health.” –The New England Journal of Medicine [1]
  By Stephen Gowans Amnesty International has released a report condemning the North Korean government for failing to meet “its obligations to respect, protect and fulfil the right to health of its citizens”, citing “significant deprivation in (North Koreans’) enjoyment of the right to adequate care, in large part due to failed or counterproductive government policies.” The report documents rundown healthcare facilities which “operate with frequent power cuts and no heat” and medical personnel who “often do not receive salaries, and many hospitals (that) function without medicines and essentials.” Horrific stories are recounted of major operations carried out without anaesthesia. Blame for this is attributed solely to the North Korean government. [2] While unstated, the implication is that DPR Korea is a failed state, whose immediate demise can only be fervently wished for (or worked toward.)
  Both Amnesty and Demick operate within the framework of Western propaganda. As the North Korea specialist Tim Beal points out, Western propaganda invokes economic mismanagement as the explanation for North Korea’s collapsing economy, despite an obvious alternative explanation: sanctions. “The results — those malnourished babies,” Beal wrote prophetically three years ago, “can be blamed on the Koreans, which in turn is produced as evidence that the sanctions are desirable and necessary.” [8] [Sanctions] [Disinformation] [Inversion] [Victim]
• Aid agencies row over North Korea health care system
  16 July 2010 North Korea has faced food shortages for years The World Health Organization (WHO) says a report on North Korea's health system by Amnesty International is unscientific and outdated. Rights watchdog Amnesty said North Korea was failing to meet its people's most basic healthcare needs. Amnesty's report is based on interviews with 40 North Korean defectors and foreign health care workers. In April, the WHO's director visited North Korea and said its health system was the envy of the developing world. [Sanctions] [Disinformation] [Victim] [Media]

• Humanitarian group calls for defusing of tension
  2010-06-22 17:23 A global humanitarian group Tuesday called for a defusing of mounting peninsular tension to continue providing humanitarian aid to North Koreans. This is because such aid will eventually reach out to people in the region to bring about change in the regime, according to Lesley-Anne Knight, secretary-general of Caritas Internationalis. Lesley-Anne Knight “In our experience, humanitarian aid dampens tension because we are working at the grass roots level, and change comes from the bottom up,” Knight said in a press conference in Seoul. She noted how hardliners may believe all types of aid should be halted to punish the North, but stressed that such moves would cause only further conflict. “The issue is why it doesn’t work to punish a regime by withholding humanitarian aid,” the secretary-general said. She added that because of the rising tension, the group faces increasing difficulty in persuading its funders to give more to North Korea. [Aid weapon] [Buildup]
• South Korean Christians warn of famine in North, urge lifting of blockade
  South Korea froze economic relations and maritime communications with its northern neighbor, further crippling the North's economy 04:43 21/06/2010© REUTERS/ Jacky ChenRelated News Soviet interests drew China into Korean War Medvedev urges thorough investigation of South Korea corvette sinking Moscow, Seoul urge diplomatic solution to Korea issue North Korea threatens military retaliation over possible UN censure Explosion to ignite Korea-Russia blame game Russia ready for unbiased discussions on Korean ship sinking Representatives of South Korean Christian churches and communities issued a joint address to the government to lift its blockade of the North, citing the possibility of another devastating famine in the isolated Communist state. South Korea recently froze economic relations and maritime communications with its northern neighbor, further crippling the North's economy, which is already damaged by UN sanctions intended to force it to quit its nuclear program. The request says that "food aid programs to help the population amid food shortage should be developed," Radio Vatican said on Sunday. "The aid would contribute to reconciliation between the two states," the Organization said. According to the Vatican-led Agenzia Fides, the Catholic Church in Korea fears "a humanitarian crisis like the one which struck North Korea in the 1990s." A murderous famine gripped North Korea in mid 90s after unprecedented floods. The official death toll released by the North Korean Food Damage Rehabilitation Committee in 1999 stands at 220,000, while various sources, estimate that from two to three million people died between 1995 and 1998. Fides cites a statement, signed by 527 members of religious communities united in the Forum Religious Solidarity for Reconciliation and Peace of Korea, as saying that the committee denounces "the alarming situation of poverty and dramatic shortage of food affecting millions of North Korean brothers and sisters." Tensions between the two Koreas grew after South Korea's 1,200-ton Cheonan corvette sunk near the disputed Northern Limit Line in the Yellow Sea on March 26, with the loss of 46 lives. An international investigation concluded that North Korea fired a torpedo at the vessel from a submarine, although Pyongyang has denied the allegations. Pyongyang claims the incident was "orchestrated" by the United States in order to "hype the threat from North Korea" ahead of "Congress midterm elections slated for the coming November." [Sanctions] [Cheonan] [Religion]
• Religious leaders unite to plead for aid for North
  Say need for humanitarian help is urgent as nation risks a new famine June 18, 2010 South Korean civic activists pour rice into a box bearing a picture of the Korean Peninsula during a press conference in Seoul yesterday. [NEWSIS] Leading figures from the nation’s five major religions are urging the government to resume the humanitarian aid to North Korea that was suspended when tensions rose after the Cheonan tragedy. Calling themselves the Gathering of Faith Praying for National Reconciliation and Peace, the religious leaders held a press conference in Seoul yesterday to warn that without outside help, the reclusive communist nation could face a food crisis as severe as the 1990s famine. Some reports have estimated that several million people died in that disaster. “The biggest victims of the military confrontation between South and North Korea are our North Korean brethren, who have been forced to the edge of starving to death,” the group’s representatives said in a joint statement [Sanctions] [Religion]
• UNICEF to Spend $130 Mil. on Aid in N.Korea
  The United Nations Children's Fund has announced plans to spend close to US$130 million to support children and pregnant and nursing mothers in North Korea from 2011 to 2015. According to Yonhap News, UNICEF has submitted a proposal to its board of directors outlining plans to provide some $128 million worth of humanitarian assistance to North Korean mothers and children. Some 66 percent is expected to be spent on improving health and nutrition, while the rest will be used to finance medication for malaria and tuberculosis as well as lowering the mortality rate of newborns and mothers.

• Malaria health concerns rise due to decision to suspend projects in N.Korea
  KSM says canceling its malaria prevention project could increase rate of infections along the DMZ and north Gyeonggi Province The Korean Sharing Movement (KSM), a private group engaged in North Korean aid efforts, announced Wednesday that a joint North Korea-South Korea malaria prevention effort it had been carrying out in North Korea in conjunction with Gyeonggi Province was effectively suspended due to a special request by the government in the wake of the Cheonan sinking. As a result, observers have voiced concerns about potential infections this summer among soldiers stationed near the demilitarized zone (DMZ) on the North Korean border and northern Gyeonggi residents in Paju and Yeoncheon as malaria mosquitoes make their way south. [SK NK policy] [Joint Korea]
• UN to send review mission to North Korea
  (AFP) – 1 day ago GENEVA — The United Nations will send a team to North Korea in May to assess how aid funds have been used in the country, a spokeswoman from the UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs told AFP Tuesday. "A working level UN mission will go to DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) in late May to review the implementation of central emergency response fund (CERF) funded projects there," Elisabeth Byrs said, in response to queries from AFP. "The mission will comprise four UN staff from OCHA and from the CERF secretariat," she said, confirming Japanese media reports. The team would meet heads of UN agencies on site, in order to "better understand how funds provided by CERF are used," said Byrs. The spokeswoman did not know if the team would also meet North Korean authorities. The UN has allocated eight million dollars in 2010 in emergency relief funds for North Korea, which has suffered more than two decades of natural disasters (sic).
• Hepatitis vaccine delivery to N.Korea cancelled by Lee administration
  The administration’s move to block humanitarian aid to N.Korea has also extended to private companies, private groups and international organizations. The delivery to North Korea of hepatitis vaccine to inoculate one million North Korean children and teenagers was abruptly canceled on May 14, when the Unification Ministry sent an official dispatch to government offices and ministries ordering the immediate halt of all North Korean projects funding from the government budget. The Unification Ministry was also confirmed to have notified private groups that it could not approve delivery of humanitarian aid items such as flour and bread that the groups were planning to send to North Korea. [Aid weapon] [SK NK policy] [Lee Myung-bak]
• Sowing Rice Seeds in Cold-Beds Finished  
    Pyongyang, May 11 (KCNA) -- Sowing rice seeds in cold-beds was finished on all farms across the country. Cities and counties in South Hwanghae Province proved successful in seed treatment, sprouting and laying out rice-seedling beds, etc. They wound up sowing seeds in areas under plan as of May 7. Anju City, Sukchon County, Taedong County and other cities and counties in South Phyongan Province made good arrangements for growing healthy rice seedlings for transplantation. The sowing of rice seeds in cold-beds was also rounded off on farms in North Phyongan Province. Cities and counties in North Hwanghae Province including Sariwon City, Hwangju County and Koksan County and farms in the east coastal areas and the northern areas including Kangwon Province and North and South Hamgyong Provinces also finished sowing rice seeds in the right time.
• UNICEF's deputy chief says N. Korean children seriously malnourished
  By Kim Boram SEOUL, May 12 (Yonhap) -- One out three North Korean children is suffering from malnutrition, but a U.N. agency's efforts to help them is hampered by the country's reclusive nature, the agency's deputy chief said. "It is serious, in terms of nutrition. Every third child in North Korea is stunted due to bad nutrition," said Hilde Johnson, deputy executive director of the U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF), in an interview Tuesday with Yonhap News Agency. UNICEF has a number of programs operating in North Korea similar to those for developing countries, she said. "We run programs to help children survive, which is linked to immunization of children and vaccination. We also provide nutrition support to prevent malnutrition of children," she said. But UNICEF is restricted in alleviating what she called the "very serious" condition resulting from a decades-long food shortage. "We also try to advocate rights of children, which is not always that easy" in North Korea, Johnson said. The deputy chief was visiting Seoul for the first time [Agency] [UNUS]
• Telemedicine Service Realized
  Pyongyang, November 17 (KCNA) -- A telemedicine service has been realized between Pyongyang and provinces in the DPRK. Recently the Ministry of Public Health and Kim Man Yu Hospital have solved the technological problems arising in introducing the telemedicine service. It thus makes it possible to exchange examination result and image data by functional diagnosis equipment between Pyongyang and provincial people's hospitals and to accurately diagnose and treat patients in local hospitals without sending them to central hospitals. And local medical workers can receive a telemedicine education from professors, doctors and competent medical workers of central hospitals without leaving working site. Now the telemedicine service system is on a normal operation.
• Why North Korea Could Feed Itself
  By Randall Ireson
  Inspecting a vetch cover crop in rice paddy. In the early 1990s, agricultural production in North Korea began a precipitous decline that ultimately resulted in a famine from which perhaps 5 percent of the population died. Since the worst years of 1996 and 1997, food production has recovered somewhat, and international aid has helped avert the worst consequences. Yet farm production in the DPRK still remains far below its potential, despite substantial and continuing efforts by farmers, the government, and international aid organizations. This need not continue. With the right combination of technical and institutional changes, the North could end the continuing food shortages and still maintain a self-reliant economy. Government and farmers are beginning to address many of the technical problems, but institutional factors impede the ability of farms and the will of farmers to invest in the production process. If these factors can be resolved, the farm sector could become dynamic and productive. [Agriculture] [Development strategy] [Agency]
• North Korea has plenty of doctors: WHO
  By Jonathan Lynn Reuters Friday, April 30, 2010; 2:52 PM GENEVA (Reuters) - North Korea's health system would be the envy of many developing countries because of the abundance of medical staff that it has available, the head of the World Health Organization said on Friday. WHO Director-General Margaret Chan, speaking a day after returning from a 2-1/2 day visit to the reclusive country, said malnutrition was a problem in North Korea but she had not seen any obvious signs of it in the capital Pyongyang. North Korea -- which does not allow its citizens to leave the country -- has no shortage of doctors and nurses, in contrast to other developing countries where skilled healthcare workers often emigrate, she said. This allows North Korea to provide comprehensive healthcare, with one "household doctor" looking after every 130 families, said the head of the United Nations health agency, praising North Korea's immunization coverage and mother and child care. "They have something which most other developing countries would envy," Chan told a news conference, noting that her visit was a rare sign of the communist state's willingness to cooperate with outside agencies. Chan's comments marked a significant change from the assessment of her predecessor, Gro Harlem Brundtland, who said in 2001 that North Korea's health system was near collapse. [Sanctions] [Medical] [Media]
• Dr. MARGARET CHAN, W.H.O. DIRECTOR-GENERAL: VISIT TO D.P.R. KOREA:
  FULL-TEXT & AUDIO BRIEFING (MaximsNewsNetwork)
  UNITED NATIONS - / MaximsNews Network / 01 May 2010 - Geneva - Dr. Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organization, held a press briefing at WHO headquarters this week to discuss the details of her visit to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea; the following is the Full-Text of her remarks about the DRP Korea's public health achievements including immunization coverage, effective implementation of maternal, newborn and child health interventions, excellent DOTS coverage for tuberculosis and successfully reducing the malaria cases. Listen to the Director-General's press conference [mp3, 15Mb] and follow the full-text of the press briefing: [Medical] [Opening] [ICT]

• How to Stop Kim Jong-il from Starving His People to Death?
  Microsoft founder Bill Gates expressed opposition to helping North Korea from the new G20 Global Agriculture and Food Security Program, to which his foundation is a major donor, saying Thursday he is unsure if the North is capable of coming up with a trustworthy farm development program and adequately manage an outside aid fund. [Agency] [Inversion] [Media] [Aid weapon]
• Welthungerhilfe in North Korea: From distributing food to supporting rural development and water supply
  Welthungerhilfe has been working in North Korea since 1997, shortly after the country had been hit by severe rainfall and flooding. In the first years, Welthungerhilfe distributed mainly emergency items: food, coal, and children's clothes. But soon it became clear that more was needed. herefore, at the end of the 1990s we started with agricultural projects in South Hwanghae and North Pyong'an Provinces to show people how to produce food themselves (sic) [Context] [Arrogance]
• General information about Welthungerhilfe in North Korea
  
• Behind The Bamboo Curtain: Five Years In North Korea
  Most visitors and journalists can only scratch the surface of what life is like in North Korea. Karin Janz, country director (North Korea) for the German NGO Welthungerhilfe, will share what she has gleaned from five years of work in the secretive country, where she interacted with local families and visited their homes.
  Welthungerhilfe is the largest of six European NGOs based in North Korea. Welthungerhilfe helps people to help themselves through its support of maize seed processing, provision of clean drinking water and implementation of sustainable agro-forestry systems. The NGO has helped plant more than 100,000 fruit trees in North Korea, diversifying the diet of many people. It has also sent hundreds of North Koreans for training in Germany, Italy, Switzerland, China and New Zealand. DATE: April 20, 2010 ABOUT THE SPAEKER: From 2005 to 2010, Dr Karin Janz was country director in North Korea for the German NGO Welthungerhilfe, overseeing a team of 10 international staff members and 35 Korean specialists and translators in its Pyongyang office. Dr Janz was born in Berlin, Germany, in 1959. She studied land management and agriculture. In 1985, she spent several months in a village on Hebei’s border, where she transplanted rice, fed chicken and ducks and discussed ecological farming with farmers. From 1990 to 1995, she worked for the German Technical Cooperation GTZ to improve farmers’ living conditions in Hebei. From 1995 to 2000, she again spent months in rural China to research her PhD on traditional knowledge of farming, while advising on rural projects all over China and Asia. For another five years, she was project manager on an afforestation project in Shanxi Province. After 25 interesting years in East Asia, she is now on her way home to Germany.
• Fuller Center housing project in DPRK
  After discussions began in 2007 regarding a partnership between North Korea (DPRK) and The Fuller Center, innovative plans took shape to not only construct energy-efficient homes, but to build peace between two nations historically separated. The project was born from several years of conversations between Don Mosley, founder of Jubilee Partners, longtime friend and associate of Millard Fuller, and former member of the Habitat for Humanity International Board, and Dr. Han Park, director of the University of Georgia’s Center for the Study of Global Issues (GLOBIS) and respected intermediary between DPRK and the United States.

• U.S. could resume food aid to North
  March 25, 2010 WASHINGTON - The United States would consider resuming food aid to North Korea if Pyongyang moves to lift a year-old refusal of humanitarian assistance, the State Department said Tuesday. “There are profound needs for the North Korean population, and to the extent that North Korea wants to accept aid from the international community, including the United States, we will be willing to consider that,” department spokesman Philip Crowley said at a daily briefing. In June 2008, Washington agreed to send 500,000 tons of food aid to North Korea, including 400,000 tons through the UN’s World Food Program and the remainder through other nongovernmental agencies. In March last year, however, the hermit nation began refusing U.S. food aid, without offering a reason. [Aid weapon]
• Nepalese doc is God of Sight to poor  
  By MARGIE MASON The Associated Press Sunday, March 21, 2010; 12:01 AM HETAUDA, Nepal -- Dhanuk and more than 500 others - most of whom have never seen a doctor before - have traveled for days by bicycle, motorbike, bus and even on their relatives' backs to reach Dr. Sanduk Ruit's mobile eye camp. Each hopes for the miracle promised in radio ads by the Nepalese master surgeon: He is able to poke, slice and pull the grape-like jelly masses out of an eye, then refill it with a tiny artificial lens, in about five minutes. Free of charge.  It's an assembly-line approach to curing blindness that's possible thanks to a simple surgical technique Ruit pioneered, allowing cataracts to be removed safely without stitches through two small incisions. Once condemned by the international medical community as unthinkable and reckless, this mass surgery 'in the bush' started spreading from Nepal to poor countries worldwide nearly two decades ago. Thousands of doctors - from North Korea to Nicaragua to Nigeria - have since been trained to train others, with the hope of slowly lessening the leading cause of blindness that affects 18 million people worldwide. And later this year, U.S. military surgeons will train under Ruit for the first time.  
• N. Korea's food imports from China more than triple in January: expert
  SEOUL, March 12 (Yonhap) -- North Korea's food imports from China more than tripled in January from a year earlier, an indication the impoverished nation is bracing for serious food shortages, an agricultural expert said Friday. North Korea brought in 13,834 tons of grain from the neighboring ally in January, a 3.6-fold increase from 3,869 tons in January last year, said Kwon Tae-jin, a senior researcher on the North's agricultural sector at the South's Korea Rural Economic Institute in a posting on his blog.
  North Korea has relied on foreign handouts to feed its 24 million population after natural disasters and mismanagement devastated its economy. [Inversion] [Victim]
• UN expert: NKorean farm controls causing hunger
  By ELIANE ENGELER The Associated Press Monday, March 15, 2010; 10:55 PM GENEVA -- North Korea should let farms produce freely and allow food to be sold in local markets because the communist government cannot provide enough food for its people, a U.N. human rights investigator urged Monday. Vitit Muntarbhorn said North Korea's regime stopped small-scale farming and closed local markets last year as part of a long-term clampdown on the agricultural sector. Thieving from the military is also hurting the income of farmers and contributing to hunger, he said. [Manipulation] [Inversion] [UNUS]
• Health project helps North-South Korean ties: WHO
  Stephanie Nebehay Thu Mar 4, 2010 11:02am EST GENEVA (Reuters) - North Korea has reduced deaths from surgery and among women in childbirth under a program funded by South Korea that is building trust across the divided peninsula, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday. Rates of deadly diarrheal disease in children have fallen dramatically under the project, which has provided training to 6,000 North Korean doctors, the United Nations agency said. The program, begun in late 2006, has benefited 7 million people in the destitute North, whose wobbly economy has been hit by U.N. sanctions imposed after its nuclear test last year. "It is a very cost-effective means to reduce mortality," Dr. Eric Laroche, WHO assistant director-general for health action in crises, told a news briefing. "I've spent 30 years in the field and you don't always get such a high rate of return on investment," the French aid veteran said after a four-day trip to the reclusive country. Seoul has donated about $30 million so far and allocated a further $13 million for this year, Laroche said. Four provincial hospitals -- two pediatric and two maternity -- have been renovated and supplied with medicines and laboratory equipment, a WHO statement said. Hospitals in 80 of the 220 counties and rural clinics have also been upgraded. "Reductions have been extremely dramatic, with the number of deaths during operations falling by 73.4 percent in two years," Laroche said, citing evaluations by the University of Melbourne.
• Tuberculosis: North Korea Develops TB Laboratory With Help From American Doctors
  By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr. Published: March 1, 2010 With help from scientists from Stanford University’s medical school, North Korea has developed its first laboratory capable of detecting drug-resistant tuberculosis, scientists involved in the project said last week. Tuberculosis surged in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea during the famines of the 1990s. (Starvation suppresses the immune system, allowing latent infections to grow.) But the country cannot tell which cases are susceptible to which antibiotics, meaning more dangerous strains could push out strains that are easier to kill, as has happened in Russia and Peru. The project began after John W. Lewis, an expert on Chinese politics at Stanford participating in informal diplomatic talks over North Korea’s nuclear threat, realized how serious a TB problem the country had. In 2008, doctors from North Korea’s health ministry visited experts in the San Francisco Bay area. Last month, a Stanford team began installing the new diagnostics lab at a hospital in the capital, Pyongyang.

• N.Korea Took 300,000 Tons of Food Aid Last Year
  North Korea is believed to have been given 300,000 tons of food either on credit or as aid last year, mostly from China, the Unification Ministry told the National Assembly's Foreign Affairs, Trade and Unification Committee on Tuesday. That is enough to feed the entire population of North Korea for a month. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization on Monday said North Korea faces a shortage of 1.25 million tons of food, but that did not take into account the amount provided by China and other countries. Unification Ministry Hyun In-taek said, "North Korea has been suffering from problems in food supply and distribution since its currency reform and has been taking measures to deal with the situation."
• 1/3 of N. Koreans need food aid: U.N.
  A top-level United Nations official stressed the need for more food aid to North Korea while the South Korean government remains reluctant to step forward unless there is progress in the North's denuclearization or a settlement of the abductee issue. [Aid weapon] [Sanctions]
• Kim Jong-il Plays Up Food Shortage in N.Korea
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has renewed a lament about the backward country's failure to live up to his father's hopes in overcoming chronic food shortages in an apparent bid to extract aid amid international sanctions. The official Rodong Shinmun newspaper on Monday said Kim expressed "compassion" for the reliance of his people on broken rice, a cheaper, inferior product, in their staple diet. "What I should do now is feed the world's greatest people with rice and let them eat their fill of bread and noodles. Let us all honor the oath we made before the leader [Kim Il-sung] and help our people feed themselves without having to know broken rice." The newspaper on Jan. 9 quoted Kim as recalling nation founder Kim Il-sung's promise of rice and meat soup for all, but adding, "We have not yet fulfilled his wishes." Prof. Kim Yong-hyun of Dongguk University said, "The North is playing up its economic difficulties in an effort to wheedle aid out of the international community including South Korea." [Spin] [Bizarre]
• Seoul May Resume Fertilizer Aid to N.Korea
  The government is ready to provide North Korea with fertilizer even before an inter-Korean summit is held. "Food aid is difficult because there is a high chance it will be diverted to the military, but fertilizer isn't much of a problem," a security official said Monday. The South offered 10,000 tons of corn to the North in October "because corn is less likely to be diverted to the military than rice," a Cheong Wa Dae official said. Pyongyang accepted the offer only recently because Seoul notified it that other aid including fertilizer would be not be given unless it accepted the corn, according to a North Korea source. [Aid weapon]

• Food Aid to N.Korea Cleared for Shipment
  The government completed the necessary administrative work Tuesday for the shipment of 10,000 tons of corn to North Korea, the Unification Ministry said Wednesday. The government plans to purchase Chinese corn with some W4 billion (US$1=W1,138) out of the inter-Korean development fund. The delivery is expected to take about a month. Seoul offered the corn aid in October last year, and Pyongyang accepted last Friday.
• North’s threat won’t stop aid
  South’s forces not put on alert January 18, 2010 Despite North Korea’s threat of an attack on the South on Friday, Seoul said it will take a wait-and-see attitude until it verifies the North’s intentions, and proceed with planned food aid. North Korea showed no special signs of military action against the South as of yesterday. [Media] [Inversion] [Takeover] [Aid weapon]
• The Reverend Thomas Dwight Linton dies
  December 4, 1927 - January 11, 2010The CFK family grieves the loss of board member Thomas Dwight Linton, “Uncle Dwight”, who went to be with the Lord following a traffic accident on January 11, 2010. Dr. Linton was born in Korea to missionary parents, and he returned there in 1953 with his wife, Marjorie, to serve as Christian missionaries for the next 25 years. He was involved in rural evangelism work, and also served as President of Honam Theological Seminary from 1973-1978. Following his return from Korea, he served the Mission to North America of the Presbyterian Church in America. In 1992, while in retirement, he traveled with the Reverend Billy Graham and his team to North Korea where he interpreted for him as they met the late North Korean President Kim Il Sung and spoke in churches and at Kim Il Sung University. The work of Christian Friends of Korea grew in part out of the relationships established during that visit, and in subsequent visits Dwight and others made in the intervening years. Dwight has served as a CFK board member since 1998.
• Kim Jong-il Admits Failure to Feed People
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has admitted he failed to accomplish his late father Kim Il-sung's promise to feed the people with "rice and meat soup," the official Rodong Shinmun daily reported Saturday. Since 1946, Kim Il-sung talked about "rice and meat soup" every year, but 60 years later the North is still dependent on international food aid. The daily quoted Kim as making the remarks during an "arduous march despite a snowstorm" last year, apparently one of his so-called on-the-spot guidance tours. "Now, our country has become a powerful nation in political, ideological and military terms, but we feel many things are still wanting in people's lives." [Agency] [Media] [Sanctions]
• Kim Jong-il Determined to Feed His People
  North Korea's paramount leader Kim Jong-il is reportedly determined to realize his father's will, which he has so far failed to achieve: feeding the people. "I am resolute in my determination to enhance people's living standards in the shortest possible time so that they don't have to envy the life of people in other countries," he said, according to a North Korea's official Web site, Uriminjokkiri. Kim's father, Kim Il-sung, was a famous guerilla fighter against the Japanese colonial occupiers and founded the nation. [Agency]

• Seoul to Increase Humanitarian Aid to N.Korea
  The South Korean government plans to increase humanitarian aid to impoverished North Korea via international bodies and non-governmental organizations. Seoul's Unification Ministry announced that it will send some US$13 million to the World Health Organization and nearly $4 million to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) to support malnourished children and improve public health care facilities in the North. The ministry also added that more than $5 million will be used to fund local civic organizations so that they can provide aid to infants and pregnant women. Observers say the move is aimed at improving stalled inter-Korean ties next year.[Aid weapon]
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• Confusion Over Food Aid to N.Korea
  There has been no response from North Korea to South Korea's offer of 10,000 tons of corn nine days since it was made, but the Unification Ministry said it is "taking the necessary steps" to send the aid. A South Korean committee that oversees cooperative projects with the North is to meet later this week to approve W4 billion (US$1=W1,182) to be withdrawn from the Inter-Korean Cooperation Fund to make the corn delivery possible. Seoul plans to buy the corn from China.

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• Seoul's Aid Offer One-10th of NK Request
  South Korea's offer of 10,000 tons of corn in food aid to North Korea is just one-tenth what the communist state asked for, a report said Thursday. Seoul also demanded that its aid be sent to a specific famine-hit area, Dong-A Ilbo newspaper quoted an unidentified government official as saying. Unification Ministry spokesman Chun Hae-sung denied the report, saying neither side mentioned specific amounts of food when they held working-level talks on October 16. The talks were held to discuss holding more reunions for separated families, but ended without agreement following the North's aid request. The Seoul official told Dong-A: "The North was very perplexed by the South's offer to ship 10,000 tons of corn in response to the North's request for 100,000 tons of rice in aid at the working-level talks. "The North may have had its pride hurt, but it cannot but accept the South's offer due to its worsening food shortages." [Aid weapon]
• South Korea offers North Korea corn aid
  If North Korea accepts 10,000 tons of corn aid, the South Korean government is expected to initiate Red Cross working-level talks to discuss regularization of family reunions On Monday, the South Korean government proposed to send 10,000 tons of corn aid to North Korea through the South Korean Red Cross. The Red Cross will formally be distributing the aid, but because the cost will be supported by the Unification Ministry’s fund for inter-Korean cooperation, the aid essentially comes from the South Korean government. South Korean government officials believe it is likely that North Korea will accept the proposal.
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• South Korea shifts course on aid to North Korea
  By Jon Herskovitz and Christine Kim Reuters Monday, October 26, 2009; 1:20 AM SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea will make a small grant of humanitarian aid to North Korea, ending its suspension of handouts after a series of conciliatory gestures from its destitute rival, an official said on Monday. [Overtures]
• Granting N. Korea’s request for humanitarian assistance
  North Korea officially requested humanitarian assistance from South Korea during working-level Red Cross talks that took place Saturday. This is the first time since the launch of the Lee Myung-bak administration that North Korea has officially made this type of request. The request came following South Korea’s request for additional family reunions, and analysts are saying the two countries’ requests appear to be virtually connected. The room for negotiation and options that determine possible advance and retreat in inter-Korean relations have now become clearer. [Aid weapon]
• South Korea relegates North Korea’s request for aid to Red Cross meetings
  Analysts say Lee administration should hold high-level summit talks with North Korea and change its policy approach Though an atmosphere for dialogue between North Korean and South Korean authorities has been developing over the course of a series of recent working-level discussions, a qualitative advancement in inter-Korean relations still appears a long way off. Observers say the most important question is whether it will be possible to move past working-level discussions focusing on individual issues and towards high-level talks to discuss overall improvements in inter-Korean relations. [Aid weapon]
• No massive rice aid to the North
  Pyongyang had asked for a ‘goodwill gesture’ in return for holding reunions October 19, 2009 South Korea will not provide massive rice aid to North Korea in exchange for staging reunions for separated families, a high-ranking government official in Seoul said yesterday. The official, requesting anonymity, told reporters that the South would only supply a small amount of corn or other crops if the North wanted to receive government-level aid from Seoul. [Aid weapon]
• S.Korea Mulls Aid to N.Korea via NGOs
  South Korea is reportedly planning to provide North Korea with some US$1 million worth of aid through non-governmental organizations. According to government sources, the South Korean administration will make an official decision regarding the aid by the end of this week. The sources emphasized that aid delivered through the inter-Korean cooperation fund should be viewed separately from direct humanitarian assistance that Pyongyang requested during inter-Korean Red Cross talks last week. [Aid weapon]
• North Korea expecting smaller grain harvests due to increasing temperatures
  Posted Date : 2009-10-19 (NK Brief No. 09-10-19-2) As concerns over lean harvests and food shortages grow, North Koreans are growing more worried as rumors over worsening conditions next year make their way through North Korean communities. Temperatures in North Korea dropped sharply in July, leading to freezing that impacted the agricultural sector. From September 8-12, the temperature dropped so drastically that areas of North Korea frosted over. Mid-September temperatures then suddenly rose to levels well above average, leading fruits and vegetables to sprout new flowers.
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• South spends to solve North environmental issue
  October 17, 2009 South Korea’s Ministry of Environment last month provided 961 million won ($830,300) to help an international body resolve environmental problems in North Korea, the JoongAng Ilbo has learned. According to the ministry, the payment was made to the United Nations Environment Program, which helps countries deal with environmental issues and set up environment-friendly policies. The ministry also shelled out 2 billion won to the UNEP in November 2007.
  Kwak noted that the North Korean aid supplied by the Red Cross plunged from 200 billion won ($172.8 million) in 2006 to 1.8 billion won last year. The steep decline reflects deteriorating inter-Korean relations in recent years, especially under the Lee Myung-bak administration [SK NK policy] [Aid weapon] [Environment]
• Humanitarian appeal from Koryo Tours
  Clients often ask how they can make a donation to benefit people in DPRK and we are pleased to announce our association with a western charity who work with two North Korean social organisations, one in the education sector and one serving people with disabilities, both areas that would benefit greatly from financial and material assistance. We have selected two projects that we feel are both worthwhile and achievable and intend to raise the funds for total completion of these projects by the end of this year 2009.
  The projects will be facilitated by Koryo Tours with the assistance of Maranatha Trust, an Australian entity with foreign representatives in DPRK, in coordination with two local organisations. The local organisations have a solid track record and are well known to international donors.
• Seoul to Resume Food Aid to N.Korea
  The government has decided to resume food aid to North Korea, which was stopped in summer 2007, and is considering when to start and how much to give.
• U.S. Evangelist Arrives in N.Korea to Deliver Aid
  The son of the famous American evangelist Billy Graham arrived in Pyongyang Tuesday, the first visit by a U.S. aid agency official in months. Franklin Graham was greeted by Ri Gun, the director-general of U.S. affairs at the North Korean Foreign Ministry.
• Franklin Graham Here
  Pyongyang, October 13 (KCNA) -- Reverend Franklin Graham of the United States who is president of Samaritan's Purse, a non-governmental organization, and his party arrived here by his plane on Tuesday. At the airport he said that he came to the DPRK to play the role of a bridge for better relations between the United States and the DPRK.
• The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2009
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• Foreign Assistance to North Korea
  Mark E. Manyin Specialist in Asian Affairs Mary Beth Nikitin Analyst in Nonproliferation September 9, 2009 Since 1995, the United States has provided North Korea with over $1.2 billion in assistance, about 60% of which has paid for food aid and about 40% for energy assistance. As of early September 2009, the United States is not providing any aid to North Korea, except for a small medical assistance program. The Obama Administration has said that it would be willing to provide large-scale aid if North Korea takes steps to irreversibly dismantle its nuclear program. [Aid weapon]
• SKorea, Japan say no aid until NKorea disarms
  Impoverished North Korea should be given no aid unless it abandons the pursuit of nuclear weapons, the leaders of South Korea and Japan said Friday, forging a united stance before traveling to China for talks on how to get Pyongyang back to the negotiating table. By KWANG-TAE KIM Associated Press Writer SEOUL, South Korea — Impoverished North Korea should be given no aid unless it abandons the pursuit of nuclear weapons, the leaders of South Korea and Japan said Friday, forging a united stance before traveling to China for talks on how to get Pyongyang back to the negotiating table. The flurry of diplomacy comes days after North Korean leader Kim Jong Il told Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao that his country is ready to rejoin the six-nation nuclear disarmament talks, depending on progress in its negotiations with the U.S. North Korea is pushing to send its deputy nuclear envoy Ri Gun to the United States later this month for a private security forum, a South Korean diplomat said. He asked not to be identified because the forum's organizers have not announced the details of the session. The planned trip raises speculation that Ri could meet with U.S. officials to lay the groundwork for possible direct talks with Washington. The U.S. has said that a one-on-one meeting should be part of the broader negotiations that also involve South Korea, Japan, China and Russia. Despite the North's willingness to talk, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama firmly agreed that no aid should be offered to Pyongyang unless the communist regime takes concrete steps to dismantle its nuclear program. [Aid weapon]
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• 14 Lawmakers Call for Use of Rice Surplus as NK Aid
  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.

• Food Donated by Vietnamese Government
  Pyongyang, September 28 (KCNA) -- The rice donated by the government of Vietnam to the DPRK arrived at Nampho Port on Monday. The Vietnamese government has so far donated food to the DPRK several times in connection with the natural calamities that hit it.
• Gov't Rules Out Prompt Food, Fertilizer Aid for N.Korea
  The government is not considering substantial food or fertilizer aid to North Korea at the moment, Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Park Sun-kyoo said Monday, ruling out an immediate reward to the North for resuming inter-Korean family reunions. Park was responding to a remark by National Intelligence Service chief Won Sei-hoon in the National Assembly's Intelligence Committee, who said he would "consider humanitarian measures equivalent" to the family reunions. The North over the weekend broadly hinted it expects the South to resume food and fertilizer aid as a "goodwill" gesture. [Aid weapon]
• Director Won says NIS is considering allowing aid collected by civil society for N. Korea
  The NIS gives a positive sign for the resumption of humanitarian aid corresponding with North Korea's efforts to coordinate family reunions, but the Cheong Wa Dae denies it » Family members who participated in the Chuseok reunion event coordinated by South Korea and North Korea in Mt. Kumkang shed their tears over having to depart, Sept. 27. Won Sei-hoon, the director of the National Intelligence Service, said on Monday, “The government is going to consider a step to correspond with North Korea’s humanitarian step of cooperating on the reunion of dispersed family members.”
• N.Korea in Veiled Appeal for Resumption of Aid
  North Korea wants a "goodwill" response from South Korea now that reunions of separated families are resuming, it said Saturday. Yoo Chong-ha, the president of the South Korean Red Cross, on Sunday quoted his North Korean counterpart Jang Jae-on as saying, "The North has extended a special goodwill gesture in resuming family reunions. How about the South doing the same in return?" The two Red Cross chiefs met at the Mt. Kumgang resort, where the first round of reunions was held over the weekend. Jang was apparently in a roundabout way asking for rice and fertilizer aid, suspended since the Lee Myung-bak administration's inauguration, since the Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun administrations had tacitly given such aid as a kind of payment for the family reunions. [Overtures]
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• N. Korean corn crop to fall by 40 percent: agronomist
  SEOUL, Sept. 22 (Yonhap) -- North Korea's corn yield this year is expected to fall by 40 percent due to a fertilizer shortage and bad weather, the head of a Seoul-based aid group said Tuesday after a survey in the North. The North's corn crop for this year is estimated to be less than 1.5 million tons, considerably down from the 2.5 million to 3 million tons it usually garners, said Kim Soon-kwon, a leading corn biologist and head of the International Corn Foundation. The forecast yield portends a severe food shortage in the country where corn is believed to make up 40 percent of the total food supply. "Of all the corn harvests I've seen while visiting North Korea over the past 12 years, this year's crop was the worst," Kim said over the telephone from China where he was staying after last week's trip to the North. [Sanctions]
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• Ministry disapproves rice aid to North Korea
  Humanitarian aid remain on standby as civic organizations are asked to resubmit proposals to South Korea’s unification ministry for sending rice aid The South Korean government fails to grant approval to civic organizations requesting to send rice aid to North Korea. The government stated reservations that have made it impossible to approve requests by the peasant sector of the Southern Committee for the Implementation of the June 15 Joint Declaration to send rice aid. A unification ministry official said that it informed the organization of its decision on Sept. 8. [Aid weapon] {S NK policy]
• One third of NKorean women, children malnourished: WFP
  (AFP) – 1 day ago SEOUL — A third of North Korea women and young children are malnourished and the country will run short of almost 1.8 million tonnes of food this year, according to a UN relief agency report seen Monday. According to the latest UN assessment, the country will need close to this amount from imports or assistance "even to meet the most basic food needs of the 24 million North Korean population," the World Food Programme (WFP) office in the country said. [Sanctions] [Media]
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• Heavy Rains Hit North Korea
  Torrential rain battered North Korea's capital and other regions over the weekend amid concerns that flooding may aggravate the country's food shortages, AFP reported, quoting state media.
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• No Food for N.Korea without Monitoring, Says U.S.
  The U.S. will not resume food aid to North Korea unless there is a guarantee that the food will be distributed properly among North Koreans who need it. U.S. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters Wednesday, "We currently have no plans to provide additional food to North Korea. Any additional food aid would have to have assurances that it would be appropriately used." "We remain very concerned about the well-being of the North Korean people, but we are very concerned because we need to have adequate program management in place, monitoring and access provisions, and we don't have that right now," he added. Kelly said North Korea rejected U.S. food aid in March, expressing regret that Pyongyang threw out all NGO food monitors by the end of March. Meanwhile, the World Food Programme said there has been no single donation for the food aid program for the North since its nuclear test in May, and the program has been downsized to one-third of the original plan. [Aid weapon] [Diversion]

• S. Korean NGOs say aid for N. Korea is going to waste in Incheon harbour
  S. Korean Humanitarian aid workers urge the government to shift its N. Korea policy and to lift travel and aid ban » Chung Jung-sup, the president of the Korea NGO Council for Cooperation with North Korea (KNCCK), second from the left, stands with other representatives of KNCCK during a press conference at the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts, June 25. “Some 180 million Won’s worth of goods ready to send to Pyongyang, Kaesong and the Hoeryong district, including seedling maintenance facilities, manufacturing equipment, and apple orchard props, have been tied up in Incheon harbor since April. With the installation of props for the 10,000 or so apple trees we planted in April and irrigation materials growing delayed, we worry the apple trees may die.” (Green One Korea)
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• UNICEF aid flowing steady in N. Korea: Pyongyang chief
  SEOUL, June 3 (Yonhap) -- The U.N. children's agency said Wednesday its humanitarian aid operations in North Korea remain steady amid diplomatic tensions, and that Pyongyang will soon sign an agreement to allow a nationwide nutritional survey. "The situation with regard to access and monitoring is the same as it has been in the past," Gopalan Balagopal, UNICEF representative in Pyongyang, said in an email interview.

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• S. Korean humanitarian aid groups restricted from traveling to North Korea
  Citing concerns of safety, S. Korean civilians remain restricted to visiting N. Korea‘s Kaesong and Mt. Kumgangsan areas “Kaesong area: 415. Mt. Kumgangsan area: 45. Other areas: 0.” This is how many South Koreans reside in North Korea as of Monday, as tabulated by the Ministry of Unification. This means that excluding personnel maintaining facilities in the Kaesong (Gaeseong) Industrial Complex and Mt. Kumgangsan Tourism Zone areas, South Koreans are not able to visit North Korea.
• Humanitarian aid to N.K. falters amid restrictions
  Seoul appears to be lost between its official stance of supporting nongovernmental groups' humanitarian aid in North Korea and plans to pressure the North.
  Kang said that the government was trying to regulate humanitarian assistance to use it as leverage on the North's political stance, something that had never happened for the past 10 years. [Aid weapon]

• Our heart's concern North Korea, April 2009
  Communication with our North Korean partners is generally difficult; however, there are encouraging signs every so often - even from that extremely isolated country. As a result, this issue of Our Heart's Concern shares stories of various initiatives, which have borne fruit. Our partners in Pyongyang have become so convinced of the value of our wind energy project that they have begun offering their own training courses through the Alternative Energy Center (AEC). And that's not all: in addition to an educational trip to Germany, Holland and Switzerland for four North Koreans, Stefan Burckhardt is also scheduled to visit North Korea again the next days. We are very pleased and still feel certain that this type of sustainable development aid work has produced the increasing trust between Agape and the North Korean officials. We are hopeful that working in this way will lead to long-term cooperation opening doors so that we can reach many hearts.
  Our goal is to provide sustainable help that empowers local citizens and shows the citizens of North Korea God's love. There are still ways to reach the people of North Korea - and we have not lost our hope of finding new, effective ways of doing so! One way we have already found is the wind energy project. The Alstom Corporate Foundation Prize will cover the costs of training local people - but we still need finances to cover the construction of the windmills as well as our continued work on the project. For example, a 2kW windmill costs us CHF 7,500.00. We thank you for your faithful financial support, which makes it possible for rural citizens in North Korea to have access to electricity and an improved quality of life. We greatly appreciate your partnership and your support, which helps us reach out to people in North Korea.
  Editor: Agape international, "North Korea" Hüeblistrasse 34, CH - 8165 Oberweningen, Switzerland Tel: +41 (0)44 / 857 13 26, Fax +41 (0)44 / 857 13 11 E-Mail: northkorea@agape.ch , Web: www.agape.ch/northkorea For your donation: Bank name: Zuercher Kantonalbank Bank place: CH-8010 Zurich SWIFT-Code Bank (BIC): ZKBKCHZZ80A IBAN: CH56 0070 0110 0010 2246 8 Currency: Swiss Francs CHF Account holder: Campus fuer Christus Address: Josefstrasse 206, CH-8005 Zurich, Switzerland Reference: North Korea (2000/3/821002)
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• DPRK orders food shortage countermeasures
  Posted Date : 2009-04-16 (NK Breif No. 09-4-16-1) Following the recent launch of a rocket, Pyongyang rejected a letter signed by the UN Security Council president condemning North Korea, and amid announcements that it would restart it nuclear programs, the regime, anticipating that already weak relations with the international community will not be resolved quickly, ordered each province to plan policies regarding food supplies for June and July. The North Korean Ministry of Agriculture suggested there may be a shortage of food supplies, and has sent word to each regional farming community accounting committee, calling on them to establish countermeasures. In the order handed down to each unit, North Korean authorities stressed the planting of potatoes, barley, and other foodstuffs to provide sustenance until the start of the fall harvest. Ultimately, authorities appear to have chosen not to accept food assistance from the United States or South Korea, but as of yet, there have been no large disturbances amongst the people, and food prices in markets have shown no signification change.
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• DPRK preparing for spring fertilizer shortages
  Posted Date : 2009-03-17 (NK Brief No. 09-3-17-1) North Korea, facing chronic food deficiencies, is again looking at fertilizer shortages as the spring farming season approaches. North Korean authorities and farmers are particularly troubled by the fact that, just as last year, the likelihood of receiving chemical fertilizer aid from the South is practically non-existent. A February 26th (North) Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) article titled “Korea’s Effort to Overcome the Food Problem” reported strenuous efforts were underway to “independently” overcome the lack fertilizer in order to ease food shortages throughout the nation. According to the KCNA, “While giving on-the-spot guidance at the Heungnam Fertilizer Complex, Comrade Kim Jong Il explained that in order to ease the food problems, much fertilizer needs to be sent to farming villages.” In addition, it was explained that organic fertilizer production needs to be stepped up in order to compensate for the lack of chemical fertilizer.
• U.S. Keeping Tabs on 90,000 N.Koreans
  The United States has secured private data of about 90,000 North Koreans through food aid agencies and has used them in the process of monitoring distribution of food aid, it emerged Tuesday. There is speculation that this is a reason North Korea has refused U.S. food aid recently. A South Korean government official said, "North Korea responded sensitively to the activities by American food distribution monitors who can speak Korean. We understand that they have an unimaginable amount of data of North Koreans." In addition to monitoring the distribution of the food aid, American officials reportedly tried to find out whether those who had returned after fleeing the North in the early 2000s were still alive and whether there were any changes in the North Korean family structure. When it accepted 500,000 tons of food aid from the U.S. last May, North Korea agreed to allow Korean-speaking Americans to monitor distribution. But it disagreed with the U.S. over their number. Former vice unification minister Kim Suk-woo said, "It seems North Korea has decided that American supervision of food distribution was doing more harm than good to the regime." South Korea has been rather lax in comparison. A Unification Ministry official, who has been to the North as a monitor, said, "All we did was watch North Koreans get abut 20 kg of rice and ask them how many people there were in their family. But we've monitored distribution of less than 0.1 percent of our rice aid." [Espionage] [Aid weapon] [Diversion]
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• U.S. Says N.Korea Rejects Further Food Aid
  A WFP photo shows North Korean children eating donated food at a nursery in North Hamgyong province, North Korea (2008 file photo). In the latest of a series of moves toward apparent self-isolation, North Korea has informed the United States that it no longer wants American food assistance. U.S. officials are expressing disappointment over the move because of continuing food shortages in that country. Despite the lack of diplomatic relations with the communist state, the United States has been the largest single donor of food aid to North Korea since the country's famine in the mid-1990s. The aid program was severed in 2005, but it resumed again by mutual agreement last year amid United Nations forecasts of increased hunger in North Korea. At a news briefing, State Department Acting Spokesman Robert Wood said North Korea informed the United States of its latest decision in a terse statement through diplomatic channels within the past few days. [Manipulation]
• US, aid groups say NKorea rejected food aid
  By FOSTER KLUG The Associated Press Wednesday, March 18, 2009; 12:36 AM WASHINGTON -- North Korea has rejected American food shipments and asked aid groups to leave the country by the end of the month, the United States and a leading aid agency said Tuesday, another sign of mounting tension as Pyongyang plans a rocket launch that Washington sees as cover for a long-range missile test. State Department spokesman Robert Wood said the North gave no reason for refusing to accept U.S. food aid. North Korea faces chronic food shortages and has relied on outside aid to help feed its 23 million people since famine reportedly killed as many as 2 million in the 1990s, a result of natural disasters and mismanagement. The five aid groups working in the North to distribute U.S. food were asked to leave by the end of March, said Joy Portella, spokeswoman for the international aid agency Mercy Corps. Their distribution program had been scheduled to run until June.
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• N. Korea officials visiting Portland
  Food aid - The high-level delegation will discuss programs with Mercy Corps Tuesday, March 03, 2009 RICHARD READ The Oregonian Staff A high-level North Korean humanitarian delegation is visiting Mercy Corps in Portland this week during a period of increased tension between the communist state and neighboring South Korea. Four North Korean officials are making a rare 10-day visit to the United States, the first such trip since President Barack Obama took office. The delegation arrived here Thursday to visit Mercy Corps and other organizations that are delivering food to North Korea, where hunger has been widespread. A spokeswoman for Mercy Corps, which will host a lunch for the delegation today, declined to provide specifics of the visit, saying it was intended to be low-key and private with no media coverage. "The purpose is to discuss the status and progress of . . . aid programs" conducted by humanitarian organizations, said Joy Portella, Mercy Corps communications director.
  Mercy Corps leads a group of five aid agencies delivering 100,000 metric tons of food to North Korea, part of a 500,000-ton allotment promised by Washington. The North Korean delegation in the United States is visiting the headquarters of Mercy Corps and the consortium's other four organizations -- World Vision, Samaritan's Purse, Global Resource Services and Christian Friends of Korea. Radio Free Asia reports that the delegation members, led by Cho Il, come from a committee established in 2006 to boost exchanges with the United States. The Korea America Private Exchange Society has often served as a channel for dialog between the two governments.
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• DPRK's Efforts to Solve Food Problem
  Pyongyang, February 26 (KCNA) -- General Secretary Kim Jong Il said that in order to solve the food problem, the main in clothing, food and housing, it is imperative to send a large quantity of fertilizer to the countryside while giving on-the-spot guidance to the Hungnam Fertilizer Complex some time ago. This news is arousing forcefully the Korean people to increase grain production, upholding the tasks put forth in the joint New Year editorial from the beginning of the year. The state is strengthening material, technical and labor support to the countryside to solve the shortage of food on its own at any cost this year. The Ministry of Agriculture made and sent to the co-op farms throughout the country various kinds of multi-media which show the superiority of the advanced farming technique and farming method and the ways for their application. The work for securing high-yielding seeds which need a less amount of fertilizer and high-yielding varieties suitable to relevant areas is being pushed ahead vigorously. Much effort is also being directed to turning out large quantities of organic fertilizer by combining agricultural production with stock-breeding in accordance with the world trend in the sector of the rural economy. Farms are producing hukbosan fertilizer with peat and humus soil and other materials, biological activated manure and organic composite fertilizer to carpet them on paddy and dry fields. The Korean People's Army and institutions, enterprises, dongs and neighborhood units across the country are carrying a great deal of minor farm implements and manure to the countryside busy with farming preparation for the year.

• N.Korea's Food Supply Woefully Short of Demand
  North Korea's food supply will fall 1.17 million tons short of its 5.48-million-ton demand this year, the Unification Ministry said in a report submitted to the National Assembly's Foreign Affairs, Trade and Unification Committee. In December last year, the World Food Programme estimated that the North's food shortage would reach 836,000 tons this year. "The trade volume between the North and China amounted to US$2.78 billion last year, up 41.2 percent from a year earlier," added the ministry. Meanwhile, last year's inter-Korean trade reached $1.82 billion, up only 1.2 percent from 2007. [NK China relations]
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• Australia grants $3.75m aid to N Korea
  January 13, 2009 Australia has granted $3.75 million in humanitarian aid to North Korea. Foreign Affairs Minister Stephen Smith said the funds comprised $2 million for the World Food Program for emergency food for North Korea, $1 million for Unicef for emergency water and water sanitation supplies and $750,000 for the Red Cross. "Of course, at this time of year in the northern hemisphere food shortages in North Korea are particularly acute," Mr Smith told reporters on Tuesday. "It is another example of Australia wanting to be a good international citizen, making humanitarian assistance available to North Korea."
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• Assistance to North Korea
  By the Congressional Research Service January 22nd, 2009 Mark E. Manyin, Specialist in Asian Affairs at the Congressional Research Service, and Mary Beth Nikitin, Analyst in Nonproliferation at the Congressional Research Service, describe US assistance to North Korea including energy, food, and other forms of aid. This report looks at the changes in the amount of this aid as well as the issues for the US congress on the provision of this assistance. [US Aid
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• North Korea is expecting 3-ton potato harvest
  December 22, 2008 North Korea is expected to harvest as much as 3 million tons of potatoes next year, a Pyongyang official told Yonhap News Agency yesterday, a significant increase for the nation that suffers from chronic food shortages. The increase was made possible in large part by support and assistance provided by South Korea, visiting South Korean scholars and agricultural officials noted. Seoul and Pyongyang have held annual symposiums on agricultural science since 2000, through which South Korean scientists and officials provide agricultural technology and expertise, with a focus on potato farming, they said. “The potato is fast becoming an alternative staple food amid a worldwide food crisis,” said Lee Yong-beom, a professor from the University of Seoul. “If North Korea is able to produce and distribute seed potatoes and learn to effectively control harmful insects, it should be able to produce between 3.3 million and 4.25 million tons of potatoes annually,” Lee added. A North Korean official attending the inter-Korean symposium said his country’s potato harvest was expected to increase from 2 million tons last year to 3 million tons in 2009. South Korean participants, however, noted the North still remains far from meeting its overall food needs.
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• U.S. Halts Food Aid to N.Korea
  Some 400,000 tons of food aid the U.S. government had promised North Korea through the UN World Food Programme this year have been on hold since August because it is impossible to monitor where the food goes, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday. [Aid weapon] [Diversion]
• Dispute Stalls U.S. Food Aid To N. Korea
  A Third of Population Needs Help, U.N. Says By Blaine Harden and Glenn Kessler Washington Post Foreign Service Tuesday, December 9, 2008; Page A08 TOKYO, Dec. 8 -- A much-heralded U.S. program to restart food aid to North Korea has run into difficulty as Washington and Pyongyang haggle over the terms of access, according to U.S. and overseas officials. The previously undisclosed problems come amid estimates of growing hunger in the isolated communist country. A report released Monday by the U.N. World Food Program and Food and Agriculture Organization said that despite a better-than-usual harvest, more than a third of North Korea's population will need food aid in the coming year. The agencies' estimate of the number of hungry has jumped from 6.2 million to 8.7 million. U.S. officials noted that food aid delivered via nongovernmental organizations continues but acknowledged that the main effort -- through the World Food Program -- has stalled. They said they are trying to resolve the problems, which concern disputes over the number of U.S. personnel in Pyongyang and Korean-speaking U.N. employees around the country. [Aid weapon]
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• Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development, North Korea to sign loan agreement
  Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) - 16/11/2008 (MENAFN - Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development KFAED stated here on Sunday that it will sign a loan agreement with North Korea in a few days which is valued at KD 6.200 million (USD 21.7 million) to help in financing a sanitation system project. In a statement to the media, KFAED added the suggested project contributes in improving the environment and public health by raising the performance of city sewage systems. With this second loan, KFAED financing to North Korea is to come to KD 12.4 million (USD 43.4 million), going into development projects in water and sanitation sectors. This is in addition to technical assistance of KD 153.5 thousand (USD 537,000).

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• DPRK 2004 Nutrition Assessment Report of Survey Results
  Prepared by Central Bureau of Statistics Institute of Child Nutrition Democratic People’s Republic of Korea February 2005
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• Famine in North Korea Redux?
  Stephan Haggard and Marcus Noland
  Abstract In the 1990s, 600,000 to 1 million North Koreans, or about 3 to 5 percent of the precrisis population, perished in one of the worst famines of the 20th century.North Korea is once again poised on the brink of famine. Although the renewed provision of aid is likely to avert a disaster on the scale of the 1990s, hunger-related deaths are already occurring and a dynamic has been set in motion that will carry the crisis into 2009. North Korea is a complex humanitarian emergency characterized by highly imperfect information. This paper triangulates quantity and price evidence with direct observation to assess food insecurity in North Korea and its causes. We critique the widely cited UN figures and present original data on grain quantities and prices. These data demonstrate that for the first time since the 1990s famine, the aggregate grain balance has gone into deficit. Prices have also risen steeply. The reemergence of pathologies from the famine era is documented through direct observation. Although exogenous shocks have played a role, foreign and domestic policy choices have been key. [Famine] [Inversion]
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• North Korea Faces Worst Food Crisis in Decade
  By NEIL MACFARQUHAR Published: October 23, 2008 UNITED NATIONS — North Korea is facing its worst food crisis in a decade, with a large shortfall expected this year, according to a new report released by the United Nations on Thursday. At the same time, the number of children suffering from diarrhea has increased sharply.
  Millions of people in the country are facing "severe deprivations" not seen since the mid-1990s, the report said, with the shortfall of food expected to reach more than one and a half million tons this year.
• UN warns of millions could starve in North Korea
  By KWANG-TAE KIM The Associated Press Thursday, October 23, 2008; 1:03 AM SEOUL, South Korea -- The U.N. food agency has warned that millions of North Koreans could face starvation, but a South Korean official said Thursday that Seoul has not decided whether to respond to a request for food aid to the communist country. Around 2.7 million people on North Korea's west coast will run out of food in October, the World Food Program said in a report released on Tuesday. North Korea has relied on aid to help feed its 23 million people since natural disasters and mismanagement devastated its centrally controlled economy in the mid-1990s. Famine is believed to have killed 2 million people. [Media] [Victim] [Context]
• South Korea: There's no North Korea food crisis
  By KWANG-TAE KIM The Associated Press Friday, October 24, 2008; 1:31 AM SEOUL, South Korea -- A South Korean official has disputed the U.N.'s assessment that millions of North Koreans are at risk of food shortages, saying Friday that the impoverished communist country does not appear to face a "serious" food emergency. Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Ho-nyeon said that North Korea's harvest this year is not bad, citing South Korean civic officials who recently visited the country.
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• N. Korea’s food shortage deteriorating into ‘humanitarian emergency’: WFP official
  80% of the urban population getting food support from acquaintances, hunting-gathering has increased to 70%
  The food situation in North Korea has gone from the “chronic food shortage” stage, past the stage of “severe food and livelihood crisis,” and is deteriorating into a “humanitarian emergency,” said Jean-Pierre de Margerie, director of the World Food Program’s Pyongyang office.
• Seoul Likely to Give N. Korea 3,000 Tons of Steel Products
  By Kim Sue-young Staff Reporter South Korea will likely send 3,000 tons of steel products to North Korea late this month as the communist state pledged to resume work to disable its nuclear programs, the Yonhap news agency said Monday, quoting multiple unnamed sources.
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• Latest US Food Aid to Arrive in NK in November
  The latest food aid from the United States to North Korea _ 25,000 tons of corn and other grains _ is scheduled to arrive in the communist state next month, a U.S. radio station reported Friday. The Mary-Ann Hudson, a U.S. cargo vessel which will carry 20,000 tons of corn and 5,000 tons of beans, will depart from a port in Virginia next Thursday and arrive at North Korea's western port of Nampo, Radio Free Asia reported, citing an unnamed source close to the matter, according to Yonhap News.
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• North Korea wants big harvest amid food shortage
  The Associated Press Monday, September 15, 2008; 2:24 AM SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea urged its people Monday to make all-out efforts to reap a big harvest this autumn, saying it wants to resolve the country's chronic food shortage on its own. The North has resorted to outside handouts to help feed its 23 million people since its centrally controlled economy collapsed in the mid-1990s due to natural disasters and mismanagement. The country's food shortage has worsened this year following devastating floods in 2007. [Media] [Victim]
• Seoul to Give Food Aid to North Despite Nuke Setback
  The government on Thursday said it would give food aid to North Korea regardless of the Stalinist country’s claim to be reassembling nuclear facilities at Yongbyon. Asked during a daily briefing if a decision will be made on food aid regardless of the developments, Unification Ministry Spokesman Kim Ho-nyoun said, "We'll deliver humanitarian aid" regardless. [Aid weapon]

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• N. Korean Food Crisis Spurs U.N. to Act
  World Body Aims to Feed Millions, Says Hunger Is Worst There in a Decade
  By Edward Cody Washington Post Foreign Service Thursday, July 31, 2008; Page A14 BEIJING, July 30 -- With shriveled harvests and a cutback in imports, North Korea has slipped back into a serious food shortage that is causing millions of people to go hungry, the United Nations announced Wednesday. The main U.N. aid agency in North Korea, the World Food Program, has decided to resume emergency operations there in the next two weeks to help feed more than 5 million people over the next 15 months at a cost of $500 million, according to Jean-Pierre de Margerie, the agency's country director in the North's capital, Pyongyang.
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• NZ emergency aid to DPR Korea welcomed
  Statement by NZ-DPRK Society chairman Don Borrie
• New Zealand to provide more food aid for DPRK
  21:28, July 29, 2008 New Zealand said Tuesday it will contribute an additional 500,000 NZ dollars (370,000 U.S. dollars) toward United Nations efforts to address food shortages in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). Foreign Minister Winston Peters said in a statement "North Korea (DPRK) is facing the most severe food shortages since the famine years of the 1990s. There are fears that large numbers of families are being pushed further into hunger and famine and it is important New Zealand does what it can to assist." "The contribution announced today is a practical way New Zealand can ensure that the most vulnerable people in the global community have access to food," said Peters. This contribution followed the 500,000 NZ dollars New Zealand provided via the International Federation of the Red Cross immediately following last year's floods.
• More food aid for North Korea
  Winston Peters
  29 July, 2008
  New Zealand will contribute an additional $500,000 towards United Nations efforts to address food shortages in North Korea, Foreign Minister Winston Peters announced today.
  “North Korea is facing the most severe food shortages since the famine years of the 1990s. There are fears that large numbers of families are being pushed further into hunger and famine and it is important New Zealand does what it can to assist," said Mr Peters.
  “Food prices have tripled in the past year due to the destruction of a significant proportion of the country’s crops in the August 2007 floods and high global food prices.
  “The World Food Programme is the only major international agency addressing the consequences of the food shortage in North Korea. They are a trusted partner for New Zealand’s aid efforts and will help to ensure our assistance gets to those who need it most.
  “The contribution announced today is a practical way New Zealand can ensure that the most vulnerable people in the global community have access to food,” said Mr Peters.
  This contribution follows the $500,000 New Zealand provided via the International Federation of the Red Cross immediately following last year's floods.
• Worst N. Korean Food Crisis Since ’90s
  By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: July 30, 2008 Filed at 1:58 a.m. ET BEIJING (AP) -- Flooding and poor harvests have caused North Korea's worst food crisis since the late 1990s and have put millions at risk, the United Nations' food agency said Wednesday. The food shortage threatens widespread malnutrition, the World Food Program said. ''Millions of vulnerable North Koreans are at risk of slipping toward precarious hunger levels,'' Jean-Pierre de Margerie, the WFP's country director for North Korea, told a news conference. The WFP had been given permission to launch a new operation to target those most vulnerable in eight of the country's 10 provinces, or 6.4 million people, up from a current 1.2 million.
• PM Clark on aid to DPRK
  Prime Minister Helen Clark replies to Rev Don Borrie
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• Appeal to PM for emergency aid
  NZ-DPRK Society Chairman Rev Don Borrie writes to Prime Minister Helen Clark
  Dear Ms. Clark,
  On behalf of our Society , and our partners in the DPRK, I draw your attention to the famine that is developing in North Korea.
  We ask that the New Zealand Government make a generous and significant Emergency Grant for famine relief. ..//..
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  Seven Additional Drug Enforcement Security Agents Dispatched to Hamheung Seven additional National Security Agents for drug enforcement have been dispatched to Hamheung, South Hamgyong Province, which is known for the hub of drug manufacturing and trafficking. The authorities have maintained strict enforcement policies for several years, as they believe anti-socialist ideas are widely spread and many types of crime, including the manufacturing of ‘Ice’ (amphetamine) are rampant in Hamheung city. [Drugs]
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• Russia Offers Food to DPRK
  Pyongyang, July 9 (KCNA) -- The train carrying the food provided by the Russian Federation to the DPRK through WFP arrived at Sinuiju on July 7. The food offered to the DPRK by the Russian Federation this time is a token of the friendly relations between the peoples of the two countries and an encouragement to the Korean people.
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• North Korea to Widen Access for Aid Workers; U.S. Ship Arrives
  By CHOE SANG-HUN Published: July 1, 2008 SEOUL, South Korea — A United States freighter began unloading tons of American wheat in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, on Monday, as the government agreed to give international aid workers unprecedented access to its isolated, hunger-stricken territory, the United Nations World Food Program said. The shipment is the first installment of 500,000 tons in promised American aid to be distributed by the World Food Program and American groups like Mercy Corps. The aid, and the North Korean agreement to invite 50 more food program experts and a consortium of American relief agencies, followed recent progress in efforts to end the North’s nuclear weapons program.
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• S. Korea to provide unconditional aid to N. Korea
  Change in gov’t position follows first shipment of food from U.S.
  In a reversal, the government has announced that it will provide 50,000 tons of corn to North Korea. Though the South had previously insisted that aid to the North had to be accompanied by a round of inter-Korean talks, it has changed its position and is currently waiting for a reply from the North. During a briefing on June 30, the Ministry of Unification’s spokesperson, Kim Ho-nyon, said, “Even if the South and the North don’t meet, we can provide corn, if the North informs us of the details of how the food will be received in writing or by fax. We will be waiting for a positive response from the North.” [US dominance]
• First U.S. Food Consignment Reaches N.Korea
  The U.S. has started shipments of food to North Korea in the wake of North Korea's nuclear declaration and the blasting of the cooling tower at the Yongbyon nuclear reactor. A U.S. ship docked in the North Korean port of Nampo carrying 38,000 tons of food, the first shipment of 500,000 tons of food aid promised by Washington, CNN reported Sunday. In memorandums of understanding on food aid with the U.S. and the World Food Programme, North Korea agreed to allow random checks to determine whether the intended recipients are actually getting the food, and to increase the number of foreign personnel working to provide food aid from 10 to 60. [Aid weapon]
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• Price of DPRK rice drops
  Posted Date : 2008-06-26 (NK Brief No. 08-6-26-1) One kilogram of rice in North Korea, the price of which shot up to as much as 4,500 DPRK won last month, has reportedly fallen in price this month by up to 2000 won. According to a North Korean source, on June 10, one kilogram of rice was selling for between 2,500 – 2,700 across the country, quoting prices from cities such as Horyong and Chongjin (North Hamgyong Province), Wonsan (Kangwon Province), Sinuiju (North Pyongan Province), Kangye (Changang Province), Kangso (South Pyongan Province), and Haeju (South Hwangae Province). The source explained, “as soon as rice prices skyrocketed, smuggling in the border region picked up and permission to export 100,000 tons [of grain] came from the Chinese government, and as this occurred, the import food eased a little.” The source also said that spreading news of food aid from the United States was also an important factor in the falling grain prices. However, the source stressed, “While the price is falling, food prices are still more than three times what they were last year, so citizens with no money have a hard time feeding themselves…in agricultural regions with no money, famine is spreading regardless of falling grain prices.”
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• N.K. renovating schools with foreign donations
  SEOUL, Jun 23, 2008 (Asia Pulse Data Source via COMTEX) -- North Korea, which is marking the 60th anniversary of its foundation this year, has stepped up efforts to improve educational facilities across the country with help from foreign countries and overseas Koreans, a pro-Pyongyang Korean-language daily in Japan said Monday. Schools severely damaged by last year's flooding were being rebuilt and old university buildings renovated under a program being pushed by a civilian North Korean fund established to support the country's education sector, the Choson Sinbo said. The program is being actively supported by Australian, Swiss, Vietnamese and Finish charitable funds as well as Korean residents in Canada, said the daily of Chongryon, or the pro-Pyongyang Association of Korean Residents in Japan. [Aid] [Education]
• Mother Earth's Triple Whammy. North Korea as a Global Crisis Canary
  John Feffer
  Gas prices are above $4 a gallon; global food prices surged 39% last year; and an environmental disaster looms as carbon emissions continue to spiral upward. The global economy appears on the verge of a TKO, a triple whammy from energy, agriculture, and climate-change trends. Right now you may be grumbling about the extra bucks you're shelling out at the pump and the grocery store; but, unless policymakers begin to address all three of these trends as one major crisis, it could get a whole lot worse.
  Just ask the North Koreans.
  In the 1990s, North Korea was the world's canary. The famine that killed as much as 10% of the North Korean population in those years was, it turns out, a harbinger of the crisis that now grips the globe -- though few saw it that way at the time.
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• International Food Aid for NK Alerts Seoul
  By Na Jeong-ju Staff Reporter The stalled six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons program are showing signs of making progress with the communist regime taking steps to declare its nuclear technologies under an aid-for-disarmament deal. Last week, Japan said it will remove some of its sanctions against the North on condition that it opens an investigation into abductions of Japanese citizens, a long-running diplomatic dispute between the two sides. South Korea, the United States, China and Russia also agreed to speed up their delivery of energy aid, a promise that may encourage North Korea to come clean on its atomic developments. The latest achievements raise the prospects for a fresh round of the six-party negotiations, say officials involved in the talks. The question is: Is it also a good sign for the resumption of the stalled inter-Korean talks?  
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• Kim Jong Il Inspects Foodstuff Factory of KPA Unit
  Pyongyang, June 12 (KCNA) -- General Secretary Kim Jong Il inspected a foodstuff factory of KPA Unit 534. He went round the monument to the on-the-spot instructions given by President Kim Il Sung and the room devoted to the history of the factory, conducted by its leading officials. He highly praised the party members and other working people of the factory for their achievements in the past, saying that they have devoted themselves to producing foodstuff for the army, bearing deep in mind the on-the-spot instructions given by the President, and thus greatly contributed to increasing the defence capability. [Military economy]
• China's No. 2 to discuss food aid with N.K. officials
  SHENYANG, June 12 (Yonhap) - Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping will discuss his government's plan to provide food aid to North Korea when he visits the famine-stricken country next week, diplomatic sources here said Thursday. Xi, who concurrently serves as a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee, is scheduled to make a three-day trip to the North starting next Tuesday
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• North Korea: The Emergence of Pre-famine Conditions
  by Stephan Haggard, University of California, San Diego and Marcus Noland, Peterson Institute and Erik Weeks, Peterson Institute Op-ed published in VoxEU.org June 7, 2008 North Korea is once again facing a humanitarian emergency. The current crisis is unlikely to reach the magnitude of the famine of the 1990s, when between 600,000 and 1 million people, or roughly 3 to 5 percent of the precrisis population, died.1 During that earlier episode, the North Korean government dithered for years until a full-blown famine was under way before appealing for aid, but this time the global community is more aware of North Korea's vulnerability. The North Korean economy, even in its degraded state, is simply better able to respond than it was then, and one would hope that the leadership in Pyongyang is more sensitive to the plight of its citizenry as well. Yet hunger-related deaths are virtually inevitable if not already occurring (as suggested by unconfirmed reports leaking out through a variety of channels), and a dynamic is being set in motion that will carry the emergency into 2009. The mercerization that the North Korean economy has experienced over the last fifteen years is the product of a largely unintended process borne out of state failure [Victim]
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• China softens food export ban to help alleviate N.K. food shortage: aid group
  By Shim Sun-ah SEOUL, June 9 (Yonhap) -- China has recently increased its yearly quota for grain exports to North Korea to 150,000 tons to help ease the food shortage in the North aggravated by severe flooding last year, an aid group here said Monday. The increase was made at Pyongyang's strong request, the Buddhist relief group Good Friends said in its newsletter. China has restricted food exports due to rising domestic demand and soaring global grain prices since the start of this year. It initially allowed only 50,000 tons of corn to be exported to North Korea, rejecting the famine-stricken country's request to export 150,000 tons this year. "The Chinese government has recently decided to permit an additional 100,000 tons of grain exports after Pyongyang strongly requested it again," the newsletter said without mentioning the source of the information. [China-NK relations]
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• All People Give Helping Hand to Countryside
  Pyongyang, June 6 (KCNA) -- All people of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea are all out in support of the countryside which is busy with rice transplantation. Ministries, national institutions, organs and enterprises in Pyongyang and local areas are preferentially sending the necessary farming and other materials to the countryside while giving manpower assistance to the farmers. The electric power, machine-building and chemical industries and other related sectors are producing and supplying the necessary electric power, oil, accessories of farm machines and others to the rural economy sector in time according to the farming processes. Public health sector has organized and dispatched treatment teams to the spot to look after the health of farmers and helpers, and housewives in residential quarters are also seen on surrounding farms. All the propaganda and agitation forces including art troupes in the capital and local areas and itinerant art propaganda troupes of industrial establishments and working people's organizations are mobilized to forcefully conduct agitation for increased production in fields. Under the sincere assistance of the whole nation, the cooperative farms across the country are striving hard to wind up the rice transplantation in the most right time. They are introducing advanced methods of nursing rice seedlings and cultivating paddy rice to cope with the unfavorable weather conditions and raising to the maximum the utilization rate of all farm machines such as rice transplanters and tractors. As of the end of May, rice-transplanting has already been completed on many farms including the Mangyongdae Farm in Mangyongdae District, the Chongsan Cooperative Farm in Kangso County, the Wonhwa Cooperative Farm in Phyongwon County and the Migok Cooperative Farm in Sariwon City.
• North Korea Denies Alleged Starvation Deaths: Report
  NORTH KOREA NEWSLETTER NO. 6 (June 5, 2008) SEOUL (Yonhap) -- North Korea admitted that the country is experiencing a dire shortfall in its food supply, but denied claims by aid groups that massive deaths from starvation have begun in the country, a pro-Pyongyang daily in Japan said on May 30. "It's true that our food situation is difficult," said Choson Sinbo, the newspaper of Chongryon, the pro-Pyongyang General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, quoting an unnamed official of the North's agricultural ministry. The official, however, "strongly denied" allegations that North Koreans are dying of starvation, said the newspaper, which usually represents Pyongyang's position.
• Lack of Fertilizer Is Most Urgent Problem for N.K. Farmers: Report
  SEOUL (Yonhap) -- A lack of fertilizer is the most urgent problem for farmers in North Korea, a pro-Pyongyang newspaper said on June 3, amid indications that the North's chronic food crisis could extend into next year. Choson Sinbo, organ of the pro-Pyongyang General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, quoted a manager of a farm in a suburb of Pyongyang as saying that the production of fertilizer is currently a matter of great urgency, adding the central command economy did not provide enough fertilizer this year.
• Food shortage in N. Korea reaching crisis level
  N. Koreans could begin starving in August without food imports or int’l assistance A large number of North Koreans may begin starving to death beginning in August if the government does not dramatically increase its imports of food or find assistance from the international community.   At a seminar on the food situation in North Korea organized by the Korea Rural Economic Institute on June 5, Gwon Tae-jin, a senior researcher with the institute, predicted that the North is likely to be facing a serious food crisis beginning in mid-August and continuing through the fall harvest season. The crisis is expected to worsen throughout the year.
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• Seoul Urges N.Korea to Accept Corn Shipment
  South Korea proposed a meeting with North Korea about sending 50,000 tons of corn to the impoverished nation, but the North has yet to respond, Unification Minister Kim Ha-joong told reporters Wednesday. "We hope North Korea will respond to the offer positively as soon as possible," Kim said. "The government may consider sending aid through the UN World Food Program if the North continues to keep silent on the offer." If the North accepts the offer, the corn will be the first food aid from South Korea since the inauguration of the Lee Myung-bak administration started a new ice age in relations.
• Religious and civic leaders call for aid to N. Korea
  S. Korean gov’t aid is the only way to keep regular N. Koreans alive, leaders say » 20 religious leaders gathered at the Korea Press Foundation on June 2 to call on the South Korean government to provide 200,000 tons of food to North Korea, even in the absence of a formal request, saying that the lives of regular North Koreans depend on South Korean aid donations. A wide range of religious and social movement leaders have issued a formal appeal on the Seoul government to "give urgent aid to North Korea in the form of 200,000 tons of food, even if there is no formal request from authorities in Pyongyang."
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• time for helping N. Korea about food shortage
  [Editorial] The World Food Program (WFP) has asked Seoul to participate in the giving of food aid to North Korea. The WFP is a United Nations agency that focuses on food in the developing world and urgent food aid, and it operates an office in Pyongyang. North Korea asked it for urgent aid two weeks ago.
• WFP Asks Seoul for Food for N.Korea
  The UN World Food Program is asking Seoul to send food aid to North Korea. North Korea asked the WFP for food aid in mid-May, and the WFP sent a letter to South Korea last Monday, the Ministry of Unification said on Sunday. The WFP did not specify the amount of food it wants South Korea to provide, the ministry said. The government will consider whether to give food aid to the North after taking into consideration the concrete food condition of North Korea, which will be disclosed based on the WFP's analysis, and public opinion on the issue.
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• N. Korea accuses S. Korea to link some conditions to humanitarian aid
  S. Korea’s “pragmatism” will result in nothing but bedeviling inter-Korean relations, N.Korea said » Following the withdrawal of government officials on March 27, employees of companies doing business in the Gaeseong Industrial Complex return to the South after passing through the Customs, Immigration and Quarantine Office. With Lee set to mark his first 100 days in office on June 3, North Korea strongly accused South Korean President Lee Myung-bak of applying “pragmatism” in inter-Korean relations. An editorial writer’s article on May 30 in the North’s official newspaper Rodong Sinmun said, “The pragmatism will result in nothing but bedeviling inter-Korean relations and shame and ill-fated consequences to people.” [Aid weapon]

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• N.K. stops drills, sends troops to help farms: source
  SEOUL, May 28 (Yonhap) -- North Korea's 1.1-million strong military has apparently halted its regular military exercises while its troops help farmers raise crops, a source here said Wednesday. The North's armed services usually hold large-scale inspections and scattered exercises around this time of year ahead of a massive regular summer exercise beginning in August, the source said. However, they appear to have abandoned their primary role for now to help raise crops, according to the source, who asked not to be identified. "We are seeing massive support for farming by North Korean troops stationed throughout the country," he said, noting the scale of the military support also appeared to have significantly increased from previous years. The North's military is often said to render assistance during the farming season, but rarely so frequently that it has to give up its regular exercises [Role NK military]
• Humanitarian aid is not a weapon
  Sin Yeong-jeon, Professor, College of Medicine, Hanyang University [Column] It was not long ago when the whole country as shocked at news about a horrific crime against young children. However, violence has taken the delicate lives of more than just those two girls, Hye-jin and Ye-seul. This very moment there are hundreds of thousands of children not so far away who are dying slowly as they try to subsist on bean leftovers and even by eating dirt.   Groups devoted to helping regular North Koreans are bringing news of the food shortage there now that the peninsula is in the farming calendar’s "spring shortage." Food prices are skyrocketing, and since April there are said to be cases of death by starvation in major cities like Pyongyang, Hamgung and Chongjin. If there are deaths in South Hwanghae Province, a rice farming region, then it would appear the suffering is more severe in other places. [Aid weapon]
• N.K. needs 200,000 tons of food aid to prevent mass starvation: aid group
  By Shim Sun-ah SEOUL, May 26 (Yonhap) -- Mass starvation is likely in North Korea within two months, an aid group here said Monday, asking South Korea to send at least 200,000 tons of food in emergency aid to help the communist state avert a spreading food crisis. The 200,000 tons are the bare minimum with which the people can subsist before the first shipment of U.S. food aid arrives in the impoverished country, said Good Friends, a Seoul-based Buddhist group working to help North Koreans. North Korea faces a shortage of 600,000 tons in June and July, it added. The United States decided this month to provide 500,000 tons of food aid over the coming year, with the conservative South Korean government hesitating to send free aid to its famine-stricken neighbor. [Aid weapon] [US dominance]
• Seoul to Give N.Korea W8.9 Bil. in Construction Materials
  Seoul will send 1,000 tons of copper to North Korea as matching concessions for Pyongyang's nuclear declaration and disablement. The Unification Ministry says the construction materials are worth W8.9 billion (US$1=W1,049) and will be sent to the North over six days starting Thursday. This third batch of South Korean aid falls in line with a six-way nuclear deal under which all parties but Japan agreed to provide North Korea with 450,000 tons of heavy fuel oil and 500,000 tons of construction materials if Pyongyang completes Phase Two of denuclearization.
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• South Korea says massive famine unlikely in North
  The Associated Press Fri, May 23, 2008 (4:22 a.m.) North Korea's food shortages are unlikely to lead to a massive famine like the one that killed up to 2 million people in the 1990s, a South Korean intelligence agency official said Friday. The National Intelligence Service has told Parliament that the North faces a shortfall of about 1.2 million tons of food this year but international aid, including 500,000 tons of food promised by the United States, is expected to address some of the shortage, the official said.
• Asia's Other Crisis
  by Stephan Haggard, University of California, San Diego and Marcus Noland, Peterson Institute Op-ed in Newsweek May 17, 2008 A devastating disaster hits a longstanding Asian dictatorship. The crisis is compounded by failed economic policies and conflicts with neighbors. The world stands ready to help, but the regime dithers and aid goes undelivered. Even information on the catastrophe is scarce thanks to a media blackout, government propaganda, and denial. This story applies, of course, to Burma. But North Korea is also headed toward widespread food shortages and famine. Hunger-related deaths are nearly inevitable, on a scale that could rival Burma's
• Famine in North Korea? The evidence
  To avoid imminent food crisis, Pyongyang urged to be more receptive to international aid [Victim]
• Malnutrition in eastern Indonesia 'higher than in Africa': aid group
  JAKARTA (AFP) — Climate change has helped push malnutrition in the Indonesian half-island of West Timor to levels "higher than in Africa," aid group Church World Service said Friday. A survey of 4,800 households by the group found 61.1 percent of children under five in the region were stunted due to chronic malnutrition, while 13.1 percent of children were acutely malnourished. "The prevalence of stunting and underweight children in West Timor is higher than in Africa," Julia Suryantan, the lead author of the report, told AFP. [media] [Double standards]
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• Seoul May Send Unsolicited Food Aid to N.Korea
  The government could send food aid to North Korea even if the North does not explicitly ask for it, it said after a policy coordination meeting of the Unification Ministry with the Grand National Party at the National Assembly on Monday. The suggestion came from the GNP.  
• S. Korea shifts its position on aid to N. Korea
  Gov’t willing to provide aid without N. Korean request if food shortage is serious » Donghae Port, Gangwon Province, in an archival photo from 1995. The graphic shows current figures for the amount of food needed in North Korea (6.5 million tons), the average amount of food produced (4.5 million tons) and the estimated amount of food produced (3 million-4.1 million tons).   With the announcement of U.S. food aid to North Korea, the South Korean government has relaxed its stance on providing aid to the North. At a press conference on May 19, Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Yoo Myung-hwan remarked, "If the food shortage proves to be very serious or a huge disaster occurs in the North, the South could offer food assistance." The government has been in a quandary since the United States announced that it would provide food aid to the North. The South has provided approximately 500,000 tons of food to the North in the form of a loan, but this year, it said that it will send food only if the North asks for it. [US dominance]
• Pyongyang Reacts Promptly to U.S. Food Aid Offer
  North Korea on Saturday said through its official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), "The food aid of the U.S. government will help settle the food shortage in (North Korea) to a certain extent and contribute to promoting the understanding and confidence between the peoples of the two countries." This announcement came 12 hours after the U.S. offer of 500,000 tons of food aid to the Stalinist country. On Sunday, North Korea also reported on the U.S. offer of food aid through North Korea's state-run Korean Central Broadcasting Station, a broadcaster designed for domestic audience, and Radio Pyongyang, a broadcaster designed for overseas audience. Kim Yong-hyun, a professor of North Korean studies at Dongguk University, said, "Such an announcement by North Korean authorities is aimed at achieving multi-purposes, including preventing North Korean residents, who are suffering from food shortage, from growing restless by giving them 'hope' that food will be delivered soon, and letting them know about progress in the improvement of the Pyongyang-Washington ties."
• U.S. to Offer Food to DPRK
  Pyongyang, May 17 (KCNA) -- As already reported, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the United States of America discussed the food aid issue at negotiations held in Pyongyang on May 6 and 7 to cope with the worldwide food crisis. Accordingly, the U.S. government officially announced its decision to offer 500,000 tons of food to the DPRK on May 16. 100,000 tons are to be offered through NGOs in the U.S. and the remaining 400,000 tons through the WFP. Experts of the parties concerned will soon meet in Pyongyang to ensure the delivery of the first shipment of food before late June. The DPRK is ready to provide all technical conditions necessary for the food delivery. The food aid of the U.S. government will help settle the food shortage in the DPRK to a certain extent and contribute to promoting the understanding and confidence between the peoples of the two countries.
• North Korea welcomes US food aid offer
  The Associated Press Saturday, May 17, 2008; 3:53 AM SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea welcomed on Saturday a U.S. offer of food aid, saying the assistance would help alleviate shortages and improve relations between the two countries. The U.S. State Department said Friday it would provide 500,000 tons of food to North Korea. The decision came amid progress in their nuclear negotiations, although Washington said the assistance was not related to that issue. "The food aid of the U.S. government will help settle the food shortage in (North Korea) to a certain extent and contribute to promoting the understanding and confidence between the peoples of the two countries," the country's official Korean Central News Agency said.
• U.S. to Send N. Korea 500,000 Tons of Food Aid
  State Department Denies Revival of Program Is Tied to Progress in Nuclear Talks
  By Glenn Kessler Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, May 17, 2008; Page A14 The Bush administration said yesterday it will restart food aid to North Korea and provide it with more than 500,000 tons of food -- the largest one-year amount since 1999. U.S. officials said aid will begin to flow for the first time since 2005 because they reached a breakthrough with Pyongyang on oversight of how the food would be distributed, including random inspections and allowing Korean-speaking aid workers into the country. [Diversion] [Aid weapon]
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• US to announce N Korea food aid package
  By Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington Published: May 16 2008 04:17 | Last updated: May 16 2008 04:17 The Bush administration on Friday is expected to announce an agreement to resume providing food aid to North Korea, according to US officials. President George W. Bush approved the plan after Pyongyang agreed to a monitoring system that would ensure ordinary North Koreans receive the aid. The US intends to provide 500,000 tonnes of aid over a one-year period starting in June. Washington will channel 400,000 tonnes through the United Nation’s World Food Programme, and another 100,000 tonnes through US non-governmental organisations, including MercyCorps, both of which have worked in North Korea.
• S. Korea between a rock and a hard place on food aid to N. Korea
  Gov’t position on providing food only after N. Korean request damaging its standing in inter-Korean relations » Bags of rice are loaded onto a ship for delivery to North Korea at Masan Port, South Gyeongsang Province, on August 18, 2005. As then, North Korea is currently facing another severe food crisis. The South Korean government is in a quandary on how to provide food aid to North Korea, in another setback for Seoul because its government-level relations with Pyongyang have been strained since the inauguration of the South’s conservative President Lee Myung-bak.   Seoul’s dilemma comes amidst an increase in efforts by the international community to help North Korea, which the United Nations says is facing a severe food crisis. With rapid progress on the issue of the North’s nuclear declaration via the six-party talks aimed at persuading North Korea to abandon its nuclear ambition, the United States also said it would send 500,000 tons of food to Pyongyang. However, the South Korean government has continued to reiterate that it will provide food aid to the North, "only if North Korea requests it."
• North Korea must be helped, cry lawmakers
  Government pressed to end ¡®only if they ask for it¡¯ policy May 16, 2008 The South Korean government is in a quandary over sending food aid to North Korea. Legislators are increasingly urging Seoul to offer humanitarian support to the impoverished North despite the government¡¯s stance that it will not offer such aid unless Pyongyang asks for it. Ruling and opposing party lawmakers have raised their voices in unison, saying the South must provide aid to a country that is possibly facing its worst famine in a decade
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  North Korea Today News Flash is only issued when there are sudden incidents or urgent matters that need to be delivered. Full story of the edition will be released as scheduled.
• Food aid to North moves on fast track
  Made possible by nuclear talks May 15, 2008 Sung Kim, director of the U.S. State Department¡¯s Office of Korean Affairs, shows reporters documents he brought back from North Korea as he discusses the latest developments in the six-party talks, Tuesday. [AP] United States officials yesterday said envoys who visited North Korea earlier this month had ¡°a very good conversation¡± and that Washington will soon announce plans to ship rice to the communist state. The move comes after Pyongyang handed the U.S. 18,822 pages of records concerning its nuclear program. The American envoy described the records as a ¡°complete set,¡± and ¡°an important first step¡± towards verifying the extent of the North¡¯s nuclear efforts. With momentum of Pyongyang¡¯s denuclearization growing by the day, top diplomats from Washington, Seoul and Tokyo are also expected to meet in Washington next week to coordinate the next round of six-party talks aimed at dismantling the North¡¯s nuclear facilities. ¡°The team that went to North Korea had some good conversations about how we might go about improving the monitoring of food distribution,¡± Sean McCormack, spokesman for the U.S. State Department, said yesterday.
• Seoul Willing to Resume Food Aid to N.Korea
  Sacks of rice destined for North Korea are loaded onto a ship at Masan Port, South Gyeongsang Province in August last year. The government is reportedly willing to resume food aid to North Korea despite a chill in relations, albeit through a third party such as an international organization after persistent criticism that direct aid does not reach those who need it most. A government official on Monday said the administration will decide whether to resume food aid to North Korea after consulting with the U.S. "We are deliberating over sending food aid to the North through the World Food Programme or the U.S.," he said. [Aid weapon] [US dominance] [Diversion]
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• South will help North end food crisis if it's asked
  There are growing signs of a thaw in chilly relations with Pyongyang May 12, 2008 Seoul is discussing with Washington and international organizations ways to ease North Korea¡¯s food shortage, according to Yu Myung-hwan, minister of South Korea¡¯s foreign affairs and trade. Yu, who also heads the presidential foreign security policy coordination council that replaced the National Security Council of the Roh Moo-hyun administration, said the current Lee Myung-bak administration seeks ¡°an active dialogue and cooperation with Pyongyang¡± just as did its liberal predecessor. ¡°We¡¯ve learned from satellite images that North Korea had a crop shortage of at least one million to 1.4 million tons,¡± explained Yu in an exclusive interview with the JoongAng Ilbo. ¡°So we are having talks with many international organizations including the United States on ways to facilitate humanitarian aid.¡±
• Inside North Korea: Trouble Ahead?
  - Report on the food crisis and the social situation in North Korea
  By Good Friends Presenter Venerable Pomnyun Sunim
  1. Food Crisis Since 2006 2. North Korea Food Price Trend 3. Food Situation Articles Compilation From the North Korea Today 4. Chronology of Intensifying Control Since 2007
• DPRK-U.S. Negotiations on Food Aid Held
  Pyongyang, May 8 (KCNA) -- The U.S. food aid delegation visited the DPRK from May 5 to 8. During its visit, negotiations on humanitarian food aid were held between the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the United States of America. They had in-depth and good negotiations.
• Dying of Starvation: Hunger in North Korea
  Research Institute for North Korean Society Introduction North Korea has been having chronic difficulties feeding its population on an almost annual basis. The reasons are manifold and well known. They include low temperature, very irregular precipitation, too little arable land, deforestation that makes floods even worse, droughts that can’t be fought properly by irrigation systems because of a lack of electricity, an industry that fails to produce enough fertilizer, and an inefficient agricultural economy that suffers from the limitations of a socialist system. North Korea’s comparative advantage clearly is not in staple food production. Imports, however, would need financing by a functioning export industry which does not exist in North Korea as a result of socialist inefficiency, high military spending and international isolation. In this environment survival has hinged on unilateral transfers from the outside, but these rarely come without strings attached. The leadership in Pyongyang has been quite successful in playing its major neighbors and adversaries against each other and using the nuclear issue as a means to hold international attention span so as to assure external aid. As reports like the one below indicate, it has apparently not been sufficiently successful in staving off famine. [Victim]
• U.S. officials in Pyongyang to discuss humanitarian aid
  S. Korea still insists on receiving a formal request from the North before it will contemplate assistance » North Korean children jump rope in Pyongyang on January 1. The World Food Program has warned that North Korea will suffer a severe food shortage this year if foreign food aid cannot be found.   A group of U.S. government officials are in North Korea to discuss providing food aid to the North, while the South Korean government has maintained its stance of only resuming humanitarian aid to North Korea if the North asks for assistance.   Kurtis Cooper, a spokesman for the U.S. State Department, was reported to have said that about five U.S. officials will stay in Pyongyang for an unspecified amount of time. While there, they will try to come to agreement with North Korea on how to guarantee that American food aid can be delivered to North Koreans who really need it. Cooper told the Associated Press that the United States has continued to discuss the issue with North Korea, but that no conclusive agreement had yet been reached.
• U.S. plans hefty aid for Pyongyang
  May 07, 2008 Zoo workers at Children¡¯s Grand Park in Seoul decontaminate bird cages yesterday to prevent the spread of avian flu, which may have broken out in a nearby aviary in the Gwangjin District Office. By Kim Sang-seon As Washington is reportedly preparing to send 500,000 tons of rice to Pyongyang, South Korea will continue close consultations with the United States, Korea¡¯s Foreign Ministry said yesterday, The ministry confirmed that a team of U.S. government officials is visiting North Korea to discuss the food aid, amid growing worries that the impoverished nation is slipping back to where it was in the 1990s when as many as 2 million people starved. ¡°North Korea is known to be suffering because of a poor harvest following last year¡¯s floods and recent hikes in grain prices,¡± Foreign Ministry spokesman Moon Tae-young said at a press briefing. The aid comes at a sensitive time. The United States has said that there have recently been major advances in talks with North Korea on dismantling the North¡¯s nuclear program. Aggravating the North Korean food situation is a slowdown of aid from two of North Korea¡¯s key donors — China and South Korea.
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• North Korea on the Precipice of Famine
  Stephan Haggard, University of California, San Diego Marcus Noland, Peterson Institute for International Economics Erik Weeks, Peterson Institute for International Economics May 2008
  North Korea is once again headed toward widespread food shortages, hunger, and famine. As of this writing, the prospect of hunger-related deaths occurring in the next several months is approaching certainty. This expectation is based on four pieces of evidence, which we outline in this brief: • Food balances are as precarious as at any time since the great famine. • Access to aid or commercial imports is limited by diplomatic tensions and the world food crisis. • Domestic food prices show the kind of extreme price inflation that is typical of pre-famine or famine settings. •
• How to Feed North Korea
  Monday, May 5, 2008; Page A16 South Korea's criticism of North Korea's human rights record need not prevent its providing food and fertilizer to hungry people in the North ["S. Korean Principles vs. Hunger in North," news story, April 30]. Hunger should know no politics, as President Ronald Reagan declared to justify food aid to Ethiopians starving under a brutal communist regime in the 1980s. Since Kim Jong Il, out of anger or pride, will not request the aid, South Korea should donate it to the World Food Program for distribution up north. The agency has a long track record of delivering food in North Korea and of monitoring, albeit imperfectly, where it goes. If concerns persist about diversion to the communist elite and military, South Korea should donate protein biscuits, barley and millet, as recommended by Marcus Noland of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, which will be more likely to reach the poor than will rice, which the elite and the army prefer. And it should direct its aid to areas where there is known hunger, such as the northeast. South Korea need sacrifice neither humanitarian nor human rights principles in dealing with North Korea. ROBERTA COHEN   Washington The writer is a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a member of the board of the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea.
• DPRK seeks solutions for sharp drop in food shortages
  Posted Date : 2008-04-28 (NK Brief No. 08-4-28-1) Recently, the North Korean press has been repeatedly reporting on the fall in grain production around the world and the rising international grain prices, displaying concern as all efforts are being put forth to resolve the ‘food issue’. (North) Korean Central Television broadcast on the 20th, “Internationally, food prices have risen steeply, raising a great amount of concern,” and, quoting results of an international survey announced on the 10th, “Globally, the price of foodstuffs has risen an average of 48 percent from the end of 2006 until now.” Previously, on the 18th, the broadcasting station introduced the fact that the food situation was worsening, quoting an announcement from the UN Food and Agriculture Association (FAO) when reporting that “last year, grain stocks amounted to 2100 tons less than the previous year, the smallest reserves in 25 years.”
• DPRK eyes potatoes as answer to food shortages
  Posted Date : 2008-04-30 (NK Brief No. 08-4-30-1) The North Korean ‘Labor Newspaper’ has introduced potato production as the answer eyed by international organizations and individual countries to what it describes as the worsening worldwide food crisis caused by skyrocketing grain prices. The paper, a publication of the Workers’ Party, ran an article on April 20 titled, “Rising Interest Regarding Potato Production,” in which it described the situation caused by worldwide food prices that have been rising quickly since January. The article reported that in the case of “most countries”, 25-40 percent export taxes were being levied on flour, corn, rice, beans, and other important grains in order to build up domestic grain reserves. The article went on, “In order to break free from the worsening food situation, international institutions and a variety of countries around the world” are looking for solutions, and among these, potatoes are receiving much attention. The paper also pointed out that the United Nations labeled this year ‘International Potato Year’.
• North Korea Heading Towards Famine: Report
  Published: April 30, 2008 Filed at 12:44 a.m. ET SEOUL (Reuters) - Soaring global food prices and reluctant donors are pushing North Korea back towards famine, which could see the secretive government turn even more repressive to keep control, a paper released on Wednesday said. "The country is in its most precarious situation since the end of the famine a decade ago," said the paper from the Washington-based Peterson Institute for International Economics. Stephan Haggard, who wrote the paper with Marcus Noland, said the sharp increase in world prices for commodities had sent ripples through the communist state's economy [Sanctions]
• North Korea Today – 122: famine
  
• North Korea Today – 121
  

 
• Don't hesitate on food aide to North Korea
  [Editorial] North Korea appears to be facing a serious food shortage. The U.N. World Food Program, which has staff stationed in Pyongyang, said that the North is facing the threat of a major famine on the scale of a similar one in the mid-1990s. Crop yields have decreased by one quarter compared with previous years due to floods that swept the nation last summer and the fact that international grain prices have skyrocketed have left the North even more vulnerable. According to WFP data, grain prices at the market have risen as much as 186 percent in recent weeks, hitting a global high. Moreover, South Korea, Japan and the United States are using food as leverage for negotiations with the reclusive nation. It is not difficult to see that the North is facing its worst situation to date. [Aid weapon]
• International year of the potato
  Asia and Oceania includes the world's potato giant, China, which accounts for more than 20 percent of both the global potato-growing area and the world potato harvest. Several other Asian countries - Bangladesh, India, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Japan and Turkey - also figure in the world's top 20 potato producing countries. Some of the world's best yields are recorded in New Zealand - on average, around 42 tonnes per hectare.
  Democratic People's Republic of Korea Production, 2007 Harvested area 190 000 ha Quantity 1 900 000 t Yield 10 t/ha Consumption, 2005 Population 22 488 000 Food consumption 1 410 000 t Consumption/capita 59.49 kg Source: FAOSTAT The potato was introduced to the Korean peninsula - probably from China - during the early 1800s. It became a staple crop during the Japanese occupation from 1910 to 1945, replacing rice exported to Japan, and saved many farm families from starvation during the Second World War. The potato remains an essential food security crop in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. In 2007, it produced an estimated 1.9 million tonnes, placing the country among Asia's top 10 producers. The area under potato has grown from 36 000 ha to almost 200 000 ha since 1960, while potato output has increased fourfold over the past decade. Farmers' average yields, however, have barely improved over 1960 levels, mainly owing to shortages of agricultural inputs and the lack of virus-free seed potato. To boost production, the government is promoting a "potato farming revolution" - innovations include a low-input potato-rice cropping system that produces, in a relatively short growing season, 11 tonnes of potatoes and rice.
• FAO: Crop Prospects and Food Situation, April 2008
  In the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the 2007 cereal harvest is officially estimated at some 3 million tonnes (rice in milled terms), some 1 million tonnes lower than the record of the previous year and 750 000 tonnes below the five-year average. With this low 2007 production, the cereal deficit for the 2007/08 marketing year (November/October) is estimated at 1.66 million tonnes (see Box) Severe food shortages in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea In addition to long-standing economic constraints, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea was severely affected by floods in 2007 and continues to suffer from serious food shortages. Based on the most recent Government estimates, total cereal production in 2007 is about 3 million tonnes (milled base, or 3.6 million tonnes unmilled), a significant reduction from the 4 million tonnes of the previous year and the five-year average of 3.7 million tonnes. The major cereal losses were in maize, 33 percent down from the previous year, and in rice 25 percent down from the previous year. Potato production was estimated to have increased by 80 000 tonnes (in cereal equivalent), or 17 percent from the previous year. Soybean output also reportedly increased.
• North Korea Today – 120
  
• N.K. discusses food shortage in Cabinet meeting
  North Korea has recently convened a Cabinet meeting to discuss food shortages, China's Xinhua News Agency said Sunday, as international concerns grow over the North's economic woes. The North's Cabinet recently held an enlarged session and decided to address the chronic shortages of food and consumer goods, the news agency said, citing a recent edition of the cabinet daily Minju Joson. "The meeting also decided to focus national efforts on developing such major industries as electricity, coal mining, metal and transportation this year," Xinhua said.
• North Korea Today – 119
  
• Famine Looms in North Korea
  S. Korean workers from Korea Red Cross carry aid supply kits for N. Koreans at the branch of Red Cross in Seoul (File) The United Nations World Food Program warns North Korea is facing a potential humanitarian food crisis. This follows last year's devastating floods, which resulted in a critically low harvest. The WFP says quick action is needed to avert looming food shortages in a country where millions of people already live on the verge of starvation. Lisa Schlein reports for VOA from Geneva.
• Many may perish in a looming famine in North Korea.
  Dong Yong-sueng (Samsung Economic Research Institute) It is reported that 1 kilogram of rice is currently traded at 1,700 North Korean Won in NK marketplaces. It is too steep an increase in price considering 1 kg of rice was about 1,000 NK Won even around the same time last year even when food prices in NK had soared dramatically as food aid from South Korea was delayed due to factors such as NK nuclear issue. This is because there is a large shortage of food supply in the market. Last year, provisions for the army were reportedly distributed to some regions in an attempt to stabilize the rice price, but this year, there appears to be no such movement. This is probably because of a shortage of food reserve in NK, but, at the same time, it could also be due to the possibility of NK being unable to release reserve food due to uncertainties of North-South relations and NK nuclear issue
• N.K. asks China for massive rice aid: report
  North Korea recently asked China to provide massive rice aid for its hungry people amid a flare-up in tensions with South Korea, a news report said Friday.     Pyongyang has also decided not to request rice and fertilizer aid from South Korea until Seoul moves to improve ties, the report by the vernacular daily Hankyoreh said.   It cited a diplomatic source who is well informed about North Korea-China relations and an unnamed South Korean official who recently returned from a trip to Pyongyang.   Seoul's Foreign Ministry said it did not hear of such a request.
• North Korea Today – 118
  
• North Korea Today – 117
  

 
• Seeking resolution, U.S. offers rice to N. Korea
  Distribution methods to be monitored to ensure transparency » Food donated by the World Food Program helps to feed these North Korean children, who are having a meal in a kindergarten near Mount Myohang. The photo was taken in 2006. The United States has proposed giving 500,000 tons of rice to North Korea and is working on ways to guarantee transparency in the distribution of the rice, it has been confirmed.   The news is particularly notable because it comes at a time when the six-party talks on the North Korean nuclear issue are all but stalled over Pyongyang’s declaration of its nuclear programs [Aid weapon] [Agreement070213] [HEU]
• N.K. short of 1.66 mln tons of grain this year: report
  SEOUL, March 26 (Yonhap) -- North Korea has produced 3 million tons of grain last year, which means the impoverished country will be short of about 2 million tons by this year's fall harvest season, a recent U.N. report said. "North Korea's grain production for last year was far below the 4 million tons of crop produced in 2006 and the average 3.7 million tons for the past five years," the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said in a recent report covered by Radio Free Asia Wednesday.
• North Korea Today – 116 supplement
  
• North Korea Today – 116
  
• S. Korea will continue humanitarian aid to N. Korea
  Aid will be offered regardless of progress in nuclear issue
  » PYONGYANG - North Korean farmers plant corn near the North Korean city of Pyongyang on March 11. North Koreans have experienced severe shortages of food and fertilizer since mid 1990s. The administration of former President Roh Moo-hyun provided several hundred thousands tons of food and fertilizer annually as a loan under the 'sunshine policy' initiated by former President Kim Dae-jung. Photo courtesy of the Korean Central News Agency/Yonhap. President Lee Myung-bak, speaking at a press conference on March 22, said that he would continue to offer humanitarian aid to North Korea, separate from the nuclear issue. The president also touched on the idea of having an inter-Korean team participate in the Beijing Olympics and commented on the new administration’s economic policies. [Aid weapon]
  
• U.S. official visits S. Korea to discuss N.K. food shortage
  A U.S. State Department official visited South Korea to assess North Korea's food situation amid reports of a worsening food shortage in the communist state, a government source here said Thursday. Mark Phelan, an analyst in food security at the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research, spent two days in Seoul from Monday for talks with related Unification Ministry officials and aid activists, the source said. [Aid weapon]
• North Korea Today – 115
  
• Photos of N.Korea Diverting Rice Aid to Army Revealed
  The South Korean military captured North Korean authorities in flagrante delicto diverting rice intended for humanitarian purposes to the military, taking pictures near the Demilitarized Zone between 2006 and 2007 with a high-performance camera while monitoring the movements of the North Korean military.     In one photo (left), North Korean soldiers load rice sacks with a clear Red Cross mark onto a truck. Rice provided by South Korea as humanitarian aid bear a Red Cross mark, unlike rice provided in the form of loans. In another photo (right) the Red Cross-marked sacks are moved to guard posts. The photos were reported to the Unification Ministry and Cheong Wa Dae under the previous government, and to President Lee Myung-bak's transition team last month. Since 2003, the South Korean military has caught North Korea diverting more than 400 sacks of rice over 10 occasions to soldiers in frontline units. [Diversion] [Evidence] [Disinformation]
• In N. Korea, food shortages growing more severe
  Drought and high corn and soybean prices overseas bring many to verge of starvation
  The food shortage in North Korea is reportedly growing more severe due to a triple blow from a recent spate of dry weather, a regular season of spring food shortages and higher prices of crops overseas.     In a recent newsletter, the Good Friends, a South Korean aid group, said that only those people in North Korea with relatively good living conditions have managed to live on daily meals, while poorer people have been on the verge of starvation in advance of spring, typically a season in which food shortages are at their most severe. [Victim]
• Giving Until It Hurts
  For a decade, Stephen Linton has been battling an epidemic of tuberculosis -- and the world's most obstinate bureaucracy -- in North Korea, a country few foreigners are allowed to even see
  By Stephen Glain Sunday, March 9, 2008; Page W16 STEPHEN LINTON IS BEING HUSTLED THROUGH THE DARKENING CORRIDORS of Hadan Tuberculosis Hospital in western North Korea. It took him three hours to get here from Pyongyang, the capital, which is linked tenuously to Hadan by 50 miles of deeply rutted and washed-out roads. A diminutive man with a craggy face and patrician silhouette, Linton has just finished unloading a cache of medical supplies, and now the hospital director, who wears a white lab coat and a head covering that could double for a baker's hat, wants him to observe a surgery. But they'll have to hurry: It's already late in the November day and, in a country where electricity is tightly rationed, a surgery's outcome can hinge on how much sunlight is pouring through operating room windows. [Media] [Victim]
• North Korea Today – 113
  

• North Korea Today – 112
  
• India Donates Food to DPRK
  Pyongyang, February 5 (KCNA) -- The Indian government donated food to the DPRK. Present at the presentation ceremony held at Nampho Port on Tuesday were officials concerned and Indian Ambassador to the DPRK Zile Singh.
• North Korea Today – 111
  

• North Korea Today – 106
  
• UN Renews Calls for Aid to N.Korea
  By Yoon Won-sup Staff Reporter A U.N. human rights envoy said Thursday that South Korea needs to provide humanitarian aid to North Korea without conditions based on effective monitoring of its use. Vitit Muntarbhorn, the special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea of the United Nations, said in a press conference in Seoul that it is a general principle to give emergency aid without reciprocity. His remarks came in response to Seoul's move to link humanitarian aid to Pyongyang with progress in other issues such as South Koreans kidnapped by the North. President-elect Lee Myung-bak has pledged to bring reciprocity to inter-Korean relations. Muntarbhorn said that he got impression that various aspects of human rights will emerge as important issues for the incoming government. [Aid weapon]
• Famine and the Market: North Korea Meets Keynes
  Anna Fifield and Ruediger Frank
  We present two articles on the market response to North Korean famine.

• North Korea Today – 99
  
• Christian group may give aid to North
  November 23, 2007 The Anglican Domain, one of the world’s largest Christian groups, will discuss providing regular aid to poverty-stricken North Korea when it holds its major conference next year, a South Korean priest said yesterday. Members of the Anglican Domain, which was founded in 1534 in England, visited North Korea earlier this month to deliver medical supplies and farm equipment. They held a peace rally at the Kumgang Mountain resort, said Kim Hyun-ho of the Anglican Church of Korea.
• North Korea Today – 98
  
• U.S. pledges US$4 million to provide electricity for N. Korean medical facilities
    The United States has pledged US$4 million to help provide electricity for North Korean hospitals, a U.S. government broadcaster said Tuesday.   Citing an unidentified North Korea source in Washington, the Voice of America said the U.S. State Department will provide the aid through four global aid agencies -- EugeneBell Foundation, Mercy Corps, Samaritan's Purse and Global Resource Action Center for Environment.
• North Korea Today – 97
  

 
• N. Korea may face famine acute as mid-1990s next year, S. Korean researcher warns
  North Korea is expected to suffer from an acute food shortage next year and could face widespread famine as severe as that it suffered in the mid-1990s in the wake of devastating floods this year, a South Korean state-run research institute warned Thursday. The floods are likely to cut North Korea's autumn agricultural output by as much as 500,000 tons, nearly a tenth of the country's "minimum demand" for grains, said Kwon Tae-jin, a senior researcher at the Korea Rural Economic Institute. Overall food shortages in North Korea, which is still recovering from the famine in the mid-1990s, are believed to reach about 1.4 million tons, compared with the country's grain consumption of 5.2 million tons, the researcher said.
• Update on North Korea Flood Situation and Urgent Appeal from CFK:
  A report and an appeal from the American NGO Christian Friends of Korea
  October 10, 2007
  A CFK team returned last night from a visit to North Korea. The purpose of the visit was to confirm the arrival of an air shipment of emergency medicines, sent in partnership with Medical Teams International in response to the recent flood disaster, and valued at over $1,000,000USD. We were able to confirm delivery of the entire shipment, visiting multiple warehouse and hospital facilities involved in the distribution process. Despite our short time in country, we traveled outside of Pyongyang and heard reports from local officials regarding the extent of the flood damage in the local areas. Some places were completely cut off due to high waters for 2 weeks or more, and damage was very severe in many communities.
• U.S. Considering Massive Food Aid to N.Korea
    . After agreeing to the supply of heavy fuel oil to North Korea, the U.S. is also considering giving it large-scale food aid, chief presidential secretary for national security Baek Jong-chun said Monday. In a meeting with media editors, Baek said, "The U.S. is considering giving a considerable amount of food aid (to the North) purely from a humanitarian viewpoint. I understand that there will be a bilateral meeting to discuss this matter." [Aid weapon]
• North Korea Today – 87
  

• NK Expresses Gratitude to Seoul Over Flood Aid
  North Korea expressed gratitude to South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun for sending a letter of condolences over recent floods that reportedly ruined 10 percent of the communist country's cropland, a South Korean official said Saturday. Citing massive rain-caused floods in late August thatreportedly left more than 600 people killed or missing, North Korea had postponed until early October a scheduled inter-Korean summit of leaders in its capital in late August.
• DPRK Hit by Wipha-accompanied Downpour
  Pyongyang, September 21 (KCNA) -- The downpour brought by the typhoon Wipha traveling from Shandong Peninsula of China to the north of the West Sea of Korea fell in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea for consecutive days from September 18. In particular, the amount of rainfalls in some areas in the western coast reaches nearly 50 percent of that in the period from August 7 to 14.
• Education of N. Korean children affected by flooding
  Students must travel long distances, attend schools without roofs: UNICEF
    Floods in August destroyed hundreds of schools across North Korea and about 35,000 students are without classrooms, according to the United Nations Children's Fund. In an e-mail interview with Voice of America on September 14, UNICEF's office in Pyongyang said 316 buildings in 261 schools were fully or partly destroyed. In addition, 81 school buildings in Gangwon and South Pyeongan provinces were fully destroyed by the devastating floods, according to the report
• S. Korea sends emergency aid to N. Korea
    South Korea Monday sent the first batch of its emergency aid to North Korea to help the communist country cope with the damage from flash floods, officials said. "We sent 30 5-ton trucks to North Korea via the overland route in the morning. Later in the day, an additional 30 trucks of aid will be delivered," said an official at the Unification Ministry. By the end of this month, other aid such as materials and equipment will be delivered, while cement will be sent by the end of next month, the official said.
• UN: North Korea Needs Immediate Food Aid
  By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: September 7, 2007 Filed at 1:20 p.m. ET BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) -- Thousands of people in North Korea require immediate and continued humanitarian food aid after devastating floods last month, the U.N. World Food Program said Friday. The agency said villagers and farmers ''suffered extensive losses of food stocks, livestock, and private kitchen gardens'' -- all critical for winter. The heaviest downpours in 40 years and subsequent floods swept across North Korea last month, leaving at least 600 people dead or missing and about 100,000 people homeless, North Korea has said.
• N Korea flood damage understated
  By Anna Fifield in Seoul Published: September 6 2007 10:57 | Last updated: September 6 2007 10:57 The floods that struck North Korea last month have had a much more devastating effect than Pyongyang's state media have reported, with livestock deaths and a disrupted ration system adding to widespread food shortages, according to the United Nations' World Food Programme. North Korea has a history of exaggerating damage from natural disasters in order to win more aid from the outside world - which many analysts suspect is then diverted to the military - but this does not appear to be the case this time. [Media]
• North Korea receives Russia’s humanitarian cargo
  05.09.2007, 17.15 PYONGYANG, September 5 (Itar-Tass) - Two planes of the Russian Emergencies Ministry have delivered a 53.5-tonne cargo to residents of flood-stricken regions of North Korea. The humanitarian consignment includes 20 multi-seat tents, 25 tonnes of rice, 10 tonnes of sugar, over 6 tonnes of meat preserves, 5 tonnes of milk preserves and 3 tonnes of baby food, an Emergencies Ministry official, who accompanied the cargo, told Itar-Tass on Wednesday. The total cargo is estimated at 4.2 million roubles. The Russian authorities allocated another 15,500 euros for ground servicing of Il-76 planes that landed in Pyongyang earlier in the day. According to the North Korean state planning committee, the humanitarian consignment will be delivered to a central storehouse to distribute goods to the affected regions.
• Vietnam to give flood-hit North Korea $50,000 aid
  Vietnam will provide US$50,000 in emergency aid to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) which was hit by devastating floods last month. At least 600 people were reported dead or missing after the floods and 1 million others were affected, with thousands injured and many more left homeless. The country also suffered severe damage to its infrastructure after landslides and rain left hundreds of kilometers of roads and railways inundated.
• Foreign Ministry Spokesman on Emergency Aid to DPRK
  Pyongyang, September 5 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry of the DPRK gave the following answer to a question put by KCNA Wednesday as regards the emergency aid given by the international community to the DPRK struck hard by flood: In August unusual torrential rain hit almost all parts of the DPRK, causing huge human and material losses. Hundreds of people were reported dead or missing and more than 241,000 houses were destroyed, bringing the number of flood sufferers to at least 963,000.
  This time the DPRK received medicines and other emergency aid materials given by international organizations including the UN and many countries including China, the U.S., the EU, Russia, Australia and Egypt with sincerity. The DPRK feels thankful for this aid. It will help the DPRK recover from the flood damage and bring the living of the inhabitants in the afflicted areas to normal.  
• DPRK FM Sends Message to EC Commissioner for External Relations
  Pyongyang, September 5 (KCNA) -- Pak Ui Chun, foreign minister of the DPRK, sent a message to Benita Ferrero-Waldner, commissioner for the external relations of the European Commission. In the message Pak expressed thanks for the deep sympathy the commissioner extended as regards the flood damage in the DPRK and for the decision made by the EC to offer a humanitarian aid. Such sympathy and aid will promote mutual understanding and trust and encourage the Korean people in the endeavors to heal the aftermath of the natural disasters, the message said.
• World Vision responds to 'worst humanitarian crisis in a decade'
  by Katie Chalk
  World Vision staff in South Korea attended an afternoon ceremony at Inchon Harbor on 20 August to celebrate the shipment of 2,000 relief kits to assist flood survivors in North Korea. World Vision is the first international aid agency to send supplies to North Korea's families and children, currently affected by devastating flooding that is considered the country's "most serious humanitarian crisis in a decade."
• Gov't Orders More Flood Aid to N.Korea
  The government decided to use W49.3 billion from the inter-Korean Cooperation Fund to send supplies to North Korean flood victims at a meeting of the Inter-Korean Cooperation Support Committee (US$1=W939). Of that amount, W37.4 billion will be spent on purchasing equipment and construction materials, W10 billion on transportation and W20 billion on a U.N. program for North Korea. The government will send 100,000 tons of cement, 5,000 tons of iron bar,
• Aid Group in First Direct U.S.-N.Korea Flight in 50 Years
  A U.S. humanitarian organization has set a landmark by chartering a direct flight to airlift aid for North Korean flood victims. Samaritan's Purse president Franklin Graham said on the organization's homepage Sunday, "We've been told that this airlift is the first direct flight from the U.S. to North Korea since the Korean War." The aid organization sent goods to the North on a chartered Boeing 747, which took off in Charlotte, North Carolina on Thursday and landed in Pyongyang on Friday. Worth US$8 million, they include antibiotics, drugs and plastic housing materials.
• North Korea unusually open about flood damage, UN says
  By Mark Chisholm PYONGYANG, Sept 2 (Reuters) - North Korea has responded to outside help after devastating floods with unusual openness, a top U.N. official in the country said, but added providing assistance to the reclusive state was still a massive challenge. Jean-Pierre de Margerie said the floods, which left at least 600 dead, had also left hundreds of thousands homeless and destroyed farmland and infrastructure, a blow to a country that faces chronic food shortages. "The level of damage to infrastructure, to communications, to crops, to farmland and to households, is considerable," said de Margerie, who is the acting U.N. coordinator in North Korea as well as the World Food Programme's country representative. "The breakthrough that happened with the floods a few weeks ago is that the government has improved its level of cooperation by giving us unprecedented access to the field to conduct our assessments of the damage," he said.
• U.S. Offers Flood Aid to N.Korea
  The U.S. said Friday that it is prepared to talk with North Korea about aid for victims of the recent devastating floods. State Department spokesman Tom Casey said in a statement, "As President (George W.) Bush has noted, the American people are compassionate and concerned about the people of North Korea. Therefore, the United States is prepared to engage with North Korean officials on arrangements for a significant food aid package, including appropriate monitoring procedures." [Spin]
• U.S. willing to discuss food aid to N.Korea
    The United States said Friday it is willing to talk with North Korea about resuming "significant" food aid to help relieve flood damage, a shift from a decision in 2005 to suspend the assistance due to lack of proper monitoring. [Aid weapon]
• U.S. medical aid arrives in North Korea
    North Korea's foreign minister Friday met with a U.S. delegation bringing emergency medical supplies to help North Korean victims of recent floods, the North's official news outlet said.
• Pak Ui Chun Meets U.S. Guests
  Pyongyang, August 31 (KCNA) -- DPRK Foreign Minister Pak Ui Chun met and had a talk with U.S. guests on a visit to the DPRK at the Mansudae Assembly Hall Friday. They have brought with them emergency medical aid donated by the U.S. administration and civic organization "Samaritan's Purs" to help the DPRK recover from flood damage.
• Drive to Clear away Flood Damage Brisk in DPRK
  Pyongyang, August 30 (KCNA) -- Officials and working people in various parts of the country are now busy with the drive to clear away the flood damage. The Cabinet, commissions and ministries are taking concrete actions to preferentially supply cement and steel and other necessary materials to those units hit by flood on the basis of the specific information about the damage. A brisk drive is now under way in the flood-stricken areas under the concern of the whole state and society and with their positive support. Working people in Sinphyong, Koksan, Singye, Yonsan and Sohung counties of North Hwanghae Province which were hard hit by the flood are busy reconstructing the destroyed dwelling houses and public buildings, bringing the living of the inhabitants to normal and keeping the inundated farm land in good order.

• EU Earmarks Flood Aid for N.Korea
  The European Commission has allotted 2 million euros (W2.56 billion) for emergency relief for the estimated 500,000 North Korean victims of the recent massive floods. "The reports received from our field office in North Korea and from all our humanitarian partner organizations have confirmed the disastrous situation faced by hundreds of thousands of North Koreans," Louis Michel, the European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid, said on the commission's website.
• Tokyo considers aid for N Korea flood victims
  By David Pilling in Tokyo and Anna Fifield in Seoul Published: August 30 2007 03:00 | Last updated: August 30 2007 03:00 Japan is considering sending aid to North Korea following devastating floods this month, in a sign that the government of Shinzo Abe, prime minister, may be prepared to soften its stance towards Pyongyang.
• NZ aid for DPRK flood victims welcomed
  NZ-DPRK Society Media release 29 August 2007
  The NZ Government is to be congratulated for its decision to make through the Red Cross an emergency grant of $500,000 for victims of the recent devastating floods in North Korea.
  This grant together with $20,000 from Christian World Service and $5,000 from the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand Global Ministries Fund will be gratefully received by North Koreans who have lost relatives, lost homes, lost their summer harvest, lost transport infrastructure.
  We are reliably informed by the DPRK NZ Friendship Society that the 12 August floods destroyed 30,000 homes for over 63,000 families. Tens of thousands of hectares of farmland inundated, buried under silt or washed away. 800 public buildings were destroyed as were over 540 bridges, 70 sections of railroad, and 1,100 vehicles, pumps and electric motors.
  The NZ Friendship Haksan Farm had 100% of vegetable fields completely washed away and 150 hectares of rice planted fields buried in water.
  Our New Zealand grants will barely touch the surface of need but the Korean people will know that New Zealanders care.
  Don Borrie, Chairman
• Aid for flood recovery flowing into the North
  August 29, 2007 South Korea will contribute emergency aid to North Korea worth more than $1.4 million in response to a United Nations appeal to help the communist country recover from flood damage, officials said yesterday. "The UN set the amount of emergency aid needed for North Korea at $14 million, so the government decided to take up a little more than 10 percent," a South Korean official said, asking to remain anonymous. "The UN will soon announce exact figures."
• 'Human Rights Before Aid for North Korea'
  By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter A group of 20 conservative civic organizations Tuesday urged the government to actively address North Korean human rights issues as a main agenda item during the Oct. 2-4 inter-Korean summit in Pyongyang. [Aid weapon] [Manipulation]
• North Korea flooding is the worst in history
  Over 600 are dead or missing, 400,000 are homeless and 1 million tons of food will be lost
      New reports from North Korea show that the country has suffered the most serious flood disaster in its history. As of August 26, more than 600 people are either dead or missing and over 400,000 residents are homeless. Damage to farmland was also severe, causing a loss of approximately 1 million tons of this year's harvest.
• NZ flood aid for North Korea
  21 August 2007
  New Zealand is to give $500,000 to the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC) to help people affected by serious flooding in North Korea, Foreign Minister Winston Peters said today.
  “Torrential rain and flooding has caused widespread devastation across North Korea, with Kangwon province the most seriously affected. Preliminary reports indicate hundreds of casualties and over 63,000 families left homeless," Mr Peters said.
  "When a disaster like this occurs, it’s important that New Zealand does what it can to assist.
  "Our funding, which will be provided through the government’s aid agency NZAID, will help the IFRC provide emergency food and shelter.
  “The IFRC is already active in North Korea, so it is well placed to carry out evacuation and relief activities, and to assist with the rebuilding of homes and livelihoods as soon as practicable," Mr Peters said.
• North postpones Arirang festival once again due to flooding
  August 28, 2007 Due to severe flooding in the country, North Korea has temporarily suspended Arirang, its regular series of mass games, the country’s state-run media reported yesterday. The Korea Central News Agency said the mass gymnastics and dance performances will be canceled for the time being because laborers around the nation are being mobilized for flood recovery projects. The report said the Arirang festival will resume after North Korea recovers, but did not give any specific date.
• Flood Toll in N.Korea at 454 Dead, 156 Missing
  Floods in North Korea have left at least 454 dead, 156 missing, and 4,351 injured, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Sunday. In a comprehensive compilation of reports on flood damage from North Korean authorities and international agencies, UNOCHA said torrential rains in early August affected more than 436,000 residents in six provinces and 92 counties in North Korea.
• Tremendous Flood Damage in DPRK
  Pyongyang, August 25 (KCNA) -- The continuous torrential rain that hit all parts of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea from August 7 caused great manpower and material losses. �@Heavy rains registering more than 500-800 mm struck at least 150 cities and counties, claiming big casualties and losses in properties and doing serious damage to all the sectors of the national economy. �@According to the information available from the Central Statistics Bureau, torrential rain, strong wind and landslide left at least 600 people dead or missing and thousands of people wounded.
• Floods Leave 610 Dead or Missing in NK: UN
  At least 610 people were killed or missing in devastating floods that pounded North Korea earlier this month, twice the number previously announced by the communist country, a U.N. agency said Sunday. The report by the United Nations' humanitarian coordination office (OCHA) confirmed an announcement by North Korea a day earlier that at least 600 people were killed in the downpours, the worst in decades. The U.N. report, a compilation of figures from Nort Korea and international relief groups, said the rain-caused floods also left 4,351 people injured and 169,561 others homeless. According to the report, 40,463 houses were completely destroyed, 67,056 were partially damaged and 3,732 were submerged. The floods also destroyed 20 percent of rice paddies and 15 percent of corn paddies, which would cause 1 million tons in lost production. The North Korean government emphasized the need for international aid of medicine and health care, raising the possibility of the spread of infectious diseases, the report said. Citing figures from the Central Statistics Bureau, North Korea's state media said on Saturday that the floods caused huge damage to all sectors of its economy, leaving at least 600 people dead or missing, which is about the double of earlier figures.
• [Flood Special 2] North Korea Today – 86
  A Blow to Grain Production in the Fall
  13,884hectres of Land Washed Away in North Hwanghae province
  Flood Recovery Work Begins in Sineuiju
  Price of Rice in Hamheung Rises as High as 2,000won
  Rapid Increase in Acute Diarrhea Patients
  All Railroad Operations Suspended
  Except for Pyongyang - Sineuiju Route
  Entire Mountain Collapses in Gangwon Province
  Emergency Appeal for Feminine Hygiene Products
  Human Casualties Lower than Last Year
  North Hamgyung, Suffering Because of Famine Rather than Flood
  Officials in Hoeryung Rationed Maize and Potatoes
  Price of Rice Rises to 1,300won in Onsung
• [Flood Special] North Korea Today – 85
  Concentrated Rainfall Cuts-off Traffic and Communications
  Nation-wide Flood Affected, Except for Chungjin
  Orders for Emergency Flood Prevention Reiterated
  Drought and Lack of Drinking Water Causes Problems
  Extensive Damages in Pyongyang
  Words Spread that South Korean President to Make a Visit
  Selling their Apartment to Procure Food
  National Defense Committee Begins Inspections in Hoeryung
  Due to Rice Shortage, Corn and Potato Being Distributed in Hoeryung
  Still No August Food Distribution in Pyongyang
  Hoeryung, Price of Rice in Fluctuating Around 1,100 Won
  Lack of Firewood Adds More Pressure on the Food Situation
  Railroad Workers ‘Better-off’ than Others
• North Korea Today – 84
  Price of Rice Increases to 1,200won in Sineuiju
  Part of Yomju County has Eaten only Potatoes for One Month
  Must Keep Quiet about Deaths Caused by Starvation
  Officials Make Oaths Not to Produce Any Deaths from Starvation
  Sharp Escalation in Danger of Contagious Tuberculosis 
  Urgent Need for Large Amount of Antibiotics
  Doctors’ Days are Extremely Busy
  People Very Upset Over Market Crackdowns
  Starting August 1st, New Passes to Cross the Border Issued
• S. Korea to provide extra emergency aid to N. Korea
  South Korea decided Friday to provide 37.4 billion won (US$40 million) worth of cement and heavy equipment in extra aid to help North Korea recover from flood damage, Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung said. "At a meeting of relevant ministers presided over by the prime minister, we decided to give cement, iron bars, trucks, fuel, road restoration equipment and pitch to North Korea at the earliest possible time," Lee said in a weekly press briefing. Lee said it will cost up to 10 billion won to arrange for the aid and the delivery will be made starting from mid-September. The aid will consist of 100,000 tons of cement, 5,000 tons of iron bars, 80 trucks, 500 tons of gasoline, 20 road restoration vehicles and 20,000 tons of pitch.
• Regarding the Flood Aid for the North
  At the contacts of the South-North liaison officers at Panmunjom, it is decided that the South deliver 7.1billion won worth of urgent relief supplies by land to Bongdong station, near Gaeseong from August 23 to 25. In addition, 21 private organizations notified the Ministry that they would give the North about 14.8billion won in total.
• N Korea lets in aid after flood disaster
  By Anna Fifield, Koreas Correspondent
  Published: August 23 2007 03:00 | Last updated: August 23 2007 03:00 Impoverished North Korea, the world's most secretive state, is being forced to open its doors to international aid following devastating floods that have killed hundreds of people and wiped out more than 10 per cent of crops. The heaviest rain in four decades has sparked a crisis that has significant political ramifications as it is forcing Kim Jong-il's regime to relax its usual restrictions on the movement of foreigners in the country. [media]
• U.N. relief agencies announce emergency aid to North Korea
    U.N. relief agencies announced Tuesday emergency aid to flood-ravaged North Korea and appealed to the international community for donations. The World Food Program (WFP) said the North Korean government accepted its earlier proposal and agreed to food distributions over a three-month period to 215,000 people across the country. The deliveries "will begin immediately," the agency said in a press release.
• Relief Activities of DPRK Red Cross Society
  Pyongyang, August 21 (KCNA) -- The DPRK Red Cross Society is intensifying relief activities to heal the flood damage and to stabilize the people's life in the flood-stricken areas. The society dispatched emergency relief groups to the affected areas. And it helps supplying emergency relief goods to the inhabitants on the spot in the areas in close contact with its provincial branches. The South Hamgyong Provincial Red Cross Branch has investigated in detail the losses in various places including Jongphyong, Kumya, Kowon counties hit hardest by the flood and taken necessary measures. It also called upon the Red Cross volunteers in the province to turn out in the emergency relief activities for the victims. Lots of residents and more than 2,300 volunteers in the province are taking part in the activities.
• Roh Sends Sympathy to Kim Jong-il Over Floods
  President Roh Moo-hyun has written to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il to express sympathy to North Korean flood victims. In a letter Monday, Roh expressed hope that North Korea will soon restore damaged facilities and relieve the suffering of its people from devastating floods earlier this month. Roh promised to pitch in to help the North, and looked forward to frank talks for the peace and co-prosperity of the two Koreas in an October summit with Kim. The letter was delivered by a South Korean liaison officer to a North Korean liaison officer at the truce village of Panmunjeom on Monday afternoon, the first such delivery, Cheong Wa Dae said. In the past, secret envoys have delivered such letters.
• Unusual Weather Patterns Prompt Ideas on Climate Change
  Many people were caught in a sudden rain shower in Seoul's Jongno district around 10 a.m. Monday. At the same time there were also downpours of 0.5 to 4 mm in Seodaemun-gu, Dongdaemun-gu and Jungrang-gu. The Korea Meteorological Administration, however, hadn't forecast any rain for those areas that day. Korea has had six days of rain so far this month, an average of one every three days. The showers are so frequent that some people believe Korea's climate is becoming like that of subtropical regions of Southeast Asia.
• N. Korea faces food shortage of over 400,000 tons this year
  North Korea is likely to face a shortfall of more than 400,000 metric tons of food this year due to recent heavy floods in spite of massive outside aid, a U.S. government-funded radio station reported Tuesday. Citing experts on North Korea, Voice of America (VOA) reported that the communist country might run a deficit of 400,000 tons of food even even if it receives aid from South Korea and the international community. Devastating floods are believed to have destroyed a revised 14 percent of the North's farmland, South Korean officials said. [Media]
• Int'l Red Cross appeals for aid to North Korean flood victims
  The International Red Cross appealed Monday for US$5.5 million in aid to help victims of one of the heaviest floods in North Korea. The main objective is to provide basic emergency medicines in the two worst-affected provinces in the southern part of the country that suffered serious damage to the health infrastructure, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said in a statement posted on the web. At least 89,000 people are completely homeless from the floods, according to Jaap Timmer, the federation's chief representative in North Korea, "but with clinics and hospitals put out of action and drug supplies ruined, the number of people whose lives have been impacted is far wider, and they need the international community's help." "The situation is worsening as people are falling sick due to the poor hygiene conditions," Timmer said. "A lot of people with watery diarrhea are being treated daily, and it's because of the contaminated water they are using." More than 200 people are feared dead from the heaviest rains in 40 years than began earlier this month. The IFRC said up to 40 percent of health facilities and supplies have been destroyed. In a rare move, Pyongyang quickly disclosed the damages and sought international assistance. Australia on Sunday promised $2 million in emergency food aid to be distributed by the World Food Program.
• Severe flooding in DPRK – NGOs respond
  (US The National Committee on North Korea)
  With hundreds dead or missing after incessant rain and wide-spread flooding affecting over 10% of corn and rice crops destroyed, the following US NGOs are working with the DPRK to respond to the crisis. Short-term aid may include food, medicine, clothes, tools, water purification and temporary shelter; long-term needs will be evaluatated. Please see NGO websites for more information. This website will be updated regularly as NGO responses develop.
• S.Korea to Send Flood Aid to North via Land Route
  The South Korean government's emergency relief aid to North Korea will be delivered over land starting Thursday. Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung announced Sunday that Pyongyang following Seoul's aid proposal on Friday has agreed to accept the aid package via land routes, deemed the fastest delivery method. Two hundred trucks will deliver medicine, daily necessities and food worth W7.1 billion (US$1=W950) to the North's border city of Kaeseong after the South Korean National Assembly approves the plan. Minister Lee said the government is also reviewing ways to provide about US$3.2 million to a civilian aid group that plans to give $16 million worth of assistance to help the neighboring country recover from severe floods.
• North Korea makes all-out efforts to recover from floods
  North Korea is intensifying efforts to recover from recent flood damage, the North's state media reported Monday, as heavy rains have relented since last week. Devastating floods are believed to have destroyed 11 percent of the North's farmland, and the number of dead and missing is estimated to reach more than 300, with the homeless numbering about 300,000. An estimated 46,580 homes of 88,400 families were destroyed or damaged, according to the North's media. According to reports, North Korea is focusing on restoring production, power supply, communications and other facilities as well as roads, with its government and other national agencies engaged in rehabilitation work.  
• Seoul to ship emergency flood aid to N. Korea this week
  About 7.1 billion won (US$7.5 million) worth of emergency relief aid will be shipped across the heavily-fortified inter-Korean border to North Korea late this week to help the communist nation recover from recent flood damage, Seoul's point man on North Korea said Sunday. "We offered to swiftly send relief supplies via land routes considering the seriousness of the North's flood damage and its urgent need for outside help, and Pyongyang accepted our offer," Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung told reporters.
• Whole Country Is out to Rehabilitate Flood Damage
  Pyongyang, August 18 (KCNA) -- A campaign for healing the flood damage is being dynamically launched in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The Cabinet, ministries and national institutions set out on the rehabilitation work in provinces, cities and counties in a big way, paying primary attention to it. Ministries and national institutions including the State Planning Commission, Ministry of Construction and Building-materials Industry, Ministry of Metal Industry and Ministry of Light Industry preferentially supply cement, steel and other necessary materials to the work and push ahead with the work for stabilizing the living of the people in the flood-stricken areas at an early date. The Ministry of Food Procurement and Administration and the Ministry of Commerce provide food and essential foodstuffs to the people in the flood-hit areas ahead of others. Officials of the Ministry of Public Health, along with medical teams, have rushed to Munchon City and Yangdok, Koksan, Sinphyong, Chonnae counties and other areas, carrying a large quantity of medicines with them. The Ministry of Railways has concentrated efforts on rehabilitating the destroyed rail-roadbeds, railway bridges and communication facilities. The DPRK Red Cross Society handed over emergency relief goods including blankets, tents, kitchen utensils and water purifying pills to 16,000 families in the afflicted areas. More than 13,400 Red Cross volunteers have evacuated victims to safe places and are striving hard for the stabilization of their life.
• Pyongyangites Are All out to Heal Flood-Damage
  Pyongyang, August 19 (KCNA) -- The Pyongyang citizens have turned out to heal the flood damage. �@The City People's Committee is directing primary attention to rehabilitating the destroyed dwelling houses and stabilizing the people's living in the afflicted areas. �@Great efforts are being made to restore the flood-stricken major objects such as facilities of production, power supply and communications and roads to the original state  
• North Korea Today
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• Seoul to Send W7.1 Bil. Aid to Flood-Hit North
  By Yoon Won-sup Staff Reporter South Korea will send 7.1 billion won ($7.5 million) worth of emergency aid to North Korea, which is continuing to suffer from the effects of recent heavy rain the Ministry of Unification said Friday. Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung said in a press briefing that the government has decided to send instant noodles, bottled water, blankets and medical supplies to the North and he will discuss the details with Korea Red Cross Chairman Han Wan-sang.
• U.S. provides humanitarian aid to North Korea's flood victims
  The United States said Friday it was giving US$100,000 humanitarian relief to North Korea's flood victims through non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The U.S. Agency for International Development announced it was providing aid to help North Korea as it copes with "severe destructive impact" of recent floods. Two NGOs, Mercy Corps and Samaritan's Pursue, would each receive $50,000 to provide blankets, shelter materials, water containers and other needed supplies, the agency said.
• Seoul to Send Relief Aid to N.Korean Flood Victims
  The South Korean government decided Thursday to send emergency relief supplies to North Korea following massive flooding in the communist country. The government began discussions with the Korea National Red Cross on what kinds of supplies to collect and when to send them. The government plans to discuss with the KNRC ways to first send urgent relief materials such as flour, noodles, blankets and clothing and then send heavy construction equipment needed to fix damaged facilities.
• Flood Damage in Coal Industry
  Pyongyang, August 17 (KCNA) -- The recent downpours and strong rainstorms hit hard the coal industry in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. According to the data available, more than several hundreds of thousands of tons of coal were washed away and some 400 pits, cutting faces and stopes were submerged or collapsed. Over 90 industrial buildings covering at least 11,700 square meters and 30-odd public buildings covering over 40,000 square meters were totally or partially destroyed. More than six hundreds coal mining facilities including electric motors, compressors, tram cars and transformers were inundated.
• Flood-Damaged Railway Sector under Rehabilitation
  Pyongyang, August 17 (KCNA) -- The railway transport has been heavily damaged by the torrential rains which have poured from August 7 in the DPRK. �@According to data available, rail-roadbeds covering some 78,000 cubic meters were washed away at more than 100 sections, railroads were cut off by some 62,400 cubic meters of stones and earth triggered off by landslide at some 200 sections and four tunnels were under water throughout the country. Heavy rains destroyed railway retaining walls of more than 36,000 cubic meters at 57 sections and over 280 meter-long railway bridge beams. Thirteen electric transformer substations for railway were flooded, more than 1,160 poles for railway communication and some 120 concrete poles destroyed or collapsed. The natural disaster has paralyzed the passenger and freight transport of railway.
• We Must Help N.Korea's Flood Victims
  North Korea's flood damage is reportedly very serious. According to a report to the UN World Meteorological Organization, Pyongyang saw 205 mm of rainfall on Aug. 11, Yangduk in South Pyongan Province 225 mm on Aug. 9, Shingye in North Hwanghae Province and Pyonggang in Gangwon Province 183 mm and 157 mm respectively on Aug. 10. The rains started on Aug. 7 and continued until Aug. 16. One can imagine the level of recent rainfall by comparing it to the monthly average of precipitation in South Korea in July, which is 272 mm.
• Damage by Flood Increased in DPRK
  Pyongyang, August 16 (KCNA) -- Flood-damage is further increasing in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. �@The continued heavy rainfalls across the country have done a huge damage to people's living and the national economy. �@As of August 14, more than 46,580 houses for over 88,400 families have been destroyed totally or partially and flooded in Pyongyang, North and South Hwanghae provinces, North and South Phyongan provinces and Kangwon and South Hamgyong provinces, leaving over 300,000 flood-victims. �@More than 11 percent of paddy and dry fields throughout the country were inundated, buried or washed away, some 55,000 square meters of railway roadbeds were carried away and over 400 industrial establishments were submerged under water.
• Heavy Rains Throws Shadow over Prospect of Agricultural Production
  Pyongyang, August 15 (KCNA) -- Unprecedented torrential rains have poured down in the DPRK for days in succession from August 7, throwing a shadow over prospect of the agricultural production. It is hard to expect a high grain output owing to the uninterrupted rainstorms at the most important time for the growth of crops in the country. Department Director of the Ministry of Agriculture Ri Jae Hyon told KCNA that the damage to farm crops by the current torrential rains is heavier than the previous ones in our country. As of August 14, more than 11 percent of rice and maize fields were submerged, buried or washed away taking the country as the whole, he added. At least 26,000 hectares of paddy and dry fields were completely inundated in South Phyongan Province and 20,000 hectares of paddy and dry fields in South Hwanghae Province at a time when farm crops are coming into ears. These provinces are main granaries of the country.
• Flooding in North Korea kills and displaces hundreds
  S. Korea plans relief effort and Int'l Red Cross Committee calls for aid
    Torrential rainfall has pounded North Korea since August 7 and international aid organizations as well as the South Korean government are planning to launch an emergency relief effort for the communist nation. According to a report by North Korea's state-run Korea Central News Agency on August 14, hundreds of North Koreans have died or are missing and the houses of over 63,000 families have been destroyed or submerged. The International Committee of the Red Cross estimates that there are more than 300,000 flood victims in North Korea.        
• U.S. to consider flood aid to North Korea
  The United States would consider humanitarian aid to help North Korea following massive floods there, the State Department said Tuesday. The reports of extensive damage has "caught our attention," department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters. "If there is a humanitarian need, we will take a look and see if we could help out in some way," he said. The decision would be "based on needs and whatever we might have to offer," he said.
• Up to 300,000 may be homeless in North Korea floods
  By Jon Herskovitz Reuters Wednesday, August 15, 2007; 2:28 AM SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean authorities have indicated flooding may have left up to 300,000 people homeless, a U.N. aid agency spokesman said on Wednesday, and crop losses may be severe in the impoverished state that has battled famine.
• Huge Damage by Torrential Rain
  Pyongyang, August 13 (KCNA) -- The torrential rain that hit the DPRK from August 7 has persisted, causing huge human and material damage. According to the preliminary information available from different parts of the country as of August 12, the torrential rain left hundreds of persons dead or missing and destroyed more than 30,000 houses for over 63,300 families or rendered them inundated
• 'Hundreds dead' in N Korea floods
  Tuesday, 14 August 2007, 13:05 GMT 14:05 UK
  The flooding follows days of torrential rain in North Korea Flooding in North Korea that has killed hundreds of people is worse than last year's massive floods, officials have told the World Food Programme (WFP). North Korea was devastated by seasonal floods in August last year. Hundreds of people are thought to have died, although exact figures are not known. Heavy rain has swollen rivers, flooding huge areas of farmland and destroying thousands of homes, state media said. North Korean authorities have asked the WFP, the UN's food agency, for help. "Our understanding is that the damage is very extensive. It has affected a greater area than the floods of last year," Paul Risley of the World Food Programme told the BBC News website.
• DPRK Hit by Torrential Rains
  Pyongyang, August 9 (KCNA) -- The rain front staying in the middle of Korea has brought about torrential rains to some west and east coastal areas of the country. �@According to the observation data between 00:00 on Tuesday and 09:00 on Thursday, it rained in mountainous areas North Hwanghae Province 300-400mm and in some areas of South Phyongan, Kangwon and South Hamgyong provinces 100-200mm. �@In particular, Koksan County of North Hwanghae Province had 431mm of precipitation. And Yangdok County, Phyongsong City and Tokchon City of South Phyongan Province witnessed rainfalls of 309, 193 and 145mm respectively, while Hoeyang, Sepho, Popdong, Phyonggang and Phangyo counties of Kangwon Province rainfalls of 378, 209, 190, 182 and 178mm respectively. In Kowon County and Hamhung City, South Hamgyong Province, it rained 160 and 145mm respectively. �@A heavy rain hit Jangyon and Monggumpho areas in South Hwanghae Province between 03:00 and 06:00 on Tuesday. �@The deluge of rain has inflicted a heavy damage to agriculture and other sectors of the national economy and people's living in the relevant areas.
• Swiss Cooperation Office Hosts Reception
  Pyongyang, August 2 (KCNA) -- Country Director of the Swiss Cooperation Office of DPRK of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs Katharina Zellweger Wednesday hosted a reception on the occasion of the national day of the Swiss Confederation. Present there on invitation were officials concerned, diplomatic envoys of various countries and representatives of international organizations here. Speeches were made there.

 
• North Korea Today
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• North Korea Today
  81st edition
  Good Friends: Centre for Peace, Human Rights and Refugees
• U.N. relief agency considers stepping up food aid to N. Korea
  A U.N. relief official said North Korea currently receives only a small portion of the food aid it needs and his agency is considering stepping up aid to feed almost 2 million more people, a U.S. government-funded radio station reported Saturday. In an interview reaching here Saturday through the Korean version of the VOA's Web site, Robin Lodge, a spokesperson for the World Food Program (WFP), said international relief agencies, including the Office of Food for Peace, recently gathered in Rome, Italy and discussed the possibility of sending the communist state additional food that could feed 1.9 million people there.
• North seeks medicine, even if expired for a year
  July 11, 2007 A letter from a Red Cross hospital official in North Korea did not mince words. "We welcome any donation of medicine, even if its expiration date has passed," the official said. Moon Kyung-tae, vice chairman of the Seoul-based Korea Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association, said yesterday the official sent the letter through a civic group, Unification Affairs Research Institute, in February. The North is willing to take medicine that has expired for up to a year, Moon said, and also was willing to accept responsibility for any problems that might arise.
• Some rice will be sent by rails to Pyongyang
  July 10, 2007 South Korea will start sending 50,000 tons of rice aid to North Korea by road next week, as part of its promised loan of 400,000 tons of rice, officials said yesterday. While 350,000 tons of rice will be delivered by sea, 30,000 tons will be delivered via rail in the west of the Korean Peninsula, and another 20,000 tons will be delivered via an east coast rail line, a Unification Ministry official said. The two Koreas conducted a historic test of the reconnected railways across the border in mid-May. [Railway]
• Vehicles Donated to Korean Farm
  Pyongyang, July 5 (KCNA) -- The New Zealand-DPRK Society donated vehicles to the DPRK-New Zealand Friendship Haksan Co-op Farm, Hyongjesan District, Pyongyang. A presentation ceremony was held at the farm on Thursday. Present at the ceremony were Pak Kyong Il, chairman of the DPRK-New Zealand Friendship Society, and other members of the society and officials of the farm and Peter Wilson, member of the New Zealand-DPRK Society, who is on a visit to the DPRK.
  Prior to the ceremony, the participants looked round cozy houses, a kindergarten and a nursery there and Haksan-ri People's Hospital and enjoyed an art performance.
• The Battle for Rice Aid to N. Korea
  [Analysis] The timing will almost certainly prompt divisive conflicts in political circles
    Lee Byong-chul (merrycow)
  Published 2007-07-03 09:44 (KST)   The South Korean government has again become an attractive target for right-wing rage. Yet the government is certainly set to be "colorblind" in pursuing its North Korean policies. The government resumed rice aid to North Korea on June 30 after more than a year as Pyongyang takes a step toward fulfilling an international agreement aimed at disarming the North's nuclear weapons program. [Aid weapon] [Dilemma]
• South Korea resumes rice aid to North Korea amid optimism in nuclear standoff
      A South Korean ship carrying rice left for North Korea on Saturday as the North took a step closer to shutting down its main nuclear reactor, officials said. On Tuesday, South Korea pledged to resume rice aid to North Korea after more than a one-year hiatus as the North allowed international nuclear inspectors to visit its main nuclear reactor in Yongbyon, the first step to fulfill an agreement signed in February to disarm its nuclear weapons program in return for energy and other assistance. [Aid weapon] [Dilemma]

• S. Korea to resume rice aid to N. Korea this week
        South Korea will resume shipping rice aid to North Korea on Saturday after more than a one-year hiatus as the North takes steps toward nuclear dismantlement, South Korea's unification minister said Tuesday. [Aid weapon]
• Seoul Increases Aid to Pyongyang via Global Agencies
  By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter South Korea has been increasing aid to North Korea via international relief agencies amid mounting criticism of its direct aid to the Stalinist North, which has not yet dismantled its nuclear weapons program. The Ministry of Unification plans to provide aid to the North seven times this year through international agencies, including the World Food Program (WFP), ministry officials said.
• S.Korea to Give N.Korea Food Aid Via UN
  By JAE-SOON CHANG The Associated Press Wednesday, June 13, 2007; 2:49 PM SEOUL, South Korea -- South Korea plans to provide North Korea with 50,000 tons of corn via a U.N. food agency, an official said Wednesday, despite Seoul's decision to delay official food aid until after Pyongyang starts dismantling its nuclear program. The government also plans to send 10,500 tons of rice directly to the Communist country as part of emergency flood aid pledged last year, the official said on customary condition of anonymity, citing policy. [Aid weapon] [Dilemma]
• WHO and Republic of Korea continue support for women and children's health in DPRK
  13 FEBRUARY 2007 | SEOUL -- A World Health Organization (WHO) and Republic of Korea project to improve the health of women and children in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) continues into its second year. The US$ 20 million project, funded by the Republic of Korea, will benefit five million people in the DPR Korea.
• CFK Team Visits North Korea over Easter 2007

• Foreign NGOs in NKorea try to counter culture of dependence
  by Philippe Agret
  To cope with the pouring rain, the hospital tossed sawdust down the stairway leading to the operating theatre. Two surgeons washed their hands in a sink, but sometimes they lack soap. Much like the rest of North Korea, a political pariah and economic black hole, the nation's hospitals subsist with whatever they can get their hands on, making ends meet with obsolete equipment, short-cut procedures and a smattering of foreign assistance.
  Like others NGOs, the group has set a goal of bringing the most basic treatment to the population -- but also to encourage North Koreans to develop their own medical infrastructure. Premiere Urgence's primary effort has been producing intravenous drips -- one of the only medical supplies made in North Korea -- for the 12 hospitals where it works.

• Rice Aid Depends on First Step, Seoul Tells Pyongyang
  Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung on Monday said Seoul will start sending rice aid to Pyongyang once North Korea starts meeting its obligations under a Feb. 13 six-nation agreement. He indicated the North can get rice aid if it honors just one of the requirements -- shutting down its nuclear facilities in Yongbyon or readmitting inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency [Dilemma][Aid weapon]
• Seoul to link aid to shutdown of North Korean nuclear reactor
      South Korea has told North Korea it is important that the North start shutting down its key nuclear facilities as agreed in the six-nation talks on its nuclear program in February before Seoul resumes rice aid shipments, Seoul's point man on the communist nation said Monday. [Aid weapon]  
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• Seoul Agrees no-Strings Rice Aid to North
  The Tongjeon Tunnel on the Donghae railway, 3.8 km from the Southern Military Demarcation Line in Goseong County, Gangwon Province. North and South Korea agreed to conduct test-runs on two inter-Korean railways -- the Gyeongui railway in the west and Donghae railway in the east -- in May. South Korea has agreed to send 400,000 tons of rice worth W108 billion (US$1=W928) including transport costs to North Korea starting late May. The agreement came in the 13th Inter-Korean Economic Cooperation Promotion Committee talks concluded in Pyongyang on Sunday, where the two also agreed on a trial run of two cross-border railways on May 17. [Aid weapon]  
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• With North dragging feet, South put in difficult position regarding aid
  [Analysis] North's failure to meet six-party deadline means South's oil, rice shipments thrown into jeopardy
        North Korea has not yet shut down its nuclear facilities in Yongbyon, meaning it has missed the deadline set under the February 13 agreement forged at the six-party talks to end its nuclear program. If the North does not carry out the agreed steps until April 20, the South Korean government will inevitably have to abrogate its contract to ship 50,000 tons of heavy fuel oil to the North, which it was supposed to give the North in exchange for shutting down its nuclear reactor under the terms of the six-party talks agreement. Observers are worried the contract the Seoul government made with an oil company may have to be completely reworked and will result in a large loss of money. [Dilemma]
• WFP Aid Drive for North Korea Falls Short
  The U.N. World Food Program (WFP) has only been able to gather one-fifth of the amount of recovery aid it is seeking for North Korea, with less than a year left in the aid program, the Yonhap News Agency in Seoul reported Monday. Quoting the agency's tally, the report said a resource update for North Korea dated Thursday showed the WFP received donations totaling just short of $21 million, accounting for 20.53 percent of the aimed $102 million. The donations include $3.2 million carried over from previous operations, the report said. Russia remained the biggest donor with $5 million, which is almost 5 percent of the total, it said. Switzerland provided $2.57 million. Germany donated $1.66 million, according to the report. Other contributors include Cuba, Denmark, Ireland, Luxembourg, Italy and Poland.
• Seoul Could Delay Rice Aid to N.Korea
  Seoul could delay shipment of 400,000 tons of rice to Pyongyang unless North Korea shuts down its nuclear facilities this week. The South promised the rice aid in inter-Korean ministerial talks in March. On Saturday, North Korea missed a deadline to shut down its nuclear reactor in Yongbyon under a Feb. 13 six-nation agreement. [Aid weapon]
• UCAN: Caritas team visits North Korea, agrees to expand aid
  4/9/2007 UCANews (www.ucanews.com) SEOUL, South Korea (UCAN) – A Caritas Internationalis (CI) team recently visiting North Korea reached an agreement with local officials to continue and expand aid for medical and food-producing facilities.
  Bishop Lazarus You Heung-sik of Daejeon, president of Caritas Corea, led a 10-member team on the March 27-31 visit. "North Korean officials told me they were ashamed and disgraced to let us know the real situation of some places, but they did," Bishop You said at an April 3 press conference in Seoul. The North Koreans badly need aid from CI, he observed.
• BDA Dispute Won't Delay Rice Aid for N.Korea: Seoul
      Seoul says it will send 400,000 tons of rice to Pyongyang even if North Korea does not shut down its nuclear facilities in Yongbyon by April 1, the deadline stipulated in the Feb. 13 six-nation agreement. Implementation of the agreement hit a snag because North Korea has yet to receive some US$25 million that had been frozen in a Macau bank.
• The First Shipment of the Fertilizer Aid
  March 26, 2007 The First Shipment of the Fertilizer Aid A Vietnamese vessel carrying the first shipment of 6,500 tons of composite fertilizer will leave the southern port of Yosu for the North's western port of Nampo at 2:00pm on March 27, 2007. * The second vessel carrying 6,000 tons of composite fertilizer is planned to depart from the port of Yosu for the port of Nampo on March 30, 2007. * Additional shipment schedule will be fixed according to the internal procedure.
• North Korea admits food shortages
  South Korea has resumed some aid shipments to the North North Korea has made a rare admission that the country faces food shortages and needs help from outside, an aid official has said. Pyongyang has asked the World Food Programme to expand its assistance to meet the gap, the WFP's regional director Tony Banbury said. [Media]
• UN agency warns that millions are going hungry in North Korea
  The Associated Press Published: March 28, 2007
  BEIJING: North Korea is facing one of its biggest food shortages in 10 years, with millions of people going hungry because of a poor harvest and a huge drop in donor aid, a United Nations official said Wednesday. The official, Anthony Banbury, Asia director for the United Nations World Food Program, returned recently from a six-day trip to North Korea. He said that officials there had said they faced a food gap of one million tons and had asked the UN agency to expand its assistance, a rare admission and plea for help from the North Korean regime. While a shortfall in the food supply has been a recurring problem in recent years, North Korea has been able to compensate through "multilateral food aid through the WFP, bilateral assistance and commercial imports," Banbury said. But a weak harvest in 2006, disastrous flooding over the summer and a decrease of about 75 percent in donor assistance have dealt severe blows to the impoverished nation, he said. [Victim]

• Seoul to Resume Relief Aid to N. Korea Next Week
  By Lee Jin-woo Staff Reporter South Korea will resume the long-delayed flood relief aid to North Korea next week as part of its humanitarian aid program to the communist country, the Ministry of Unification said Thursday.
• North Korea Today
  58th Edition
  Good Friends: Centre for Peace, Human Rights and Refugees
• Fertilizer aid to North to resume
  March 17, 2007 South Korea will start shipping fertilizer to North Korea later this month as a form of humanitarian aid, the South's Red Cross chief said yesterday. "We will send fertilizer aid to North Korea beginning March 27," said Han Wan-sang, president of the Korean Red Cross.[SK Aid]
• Seoul to Help N.Korea Fight Cattle Disease
  Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung said Thursday that the government would help North Korea fight an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease. Lee said the North informed Seoul of the situation and asked for medicine and other aid to battle the livestock virus. The outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease occurred at a farm near Pyongyang last January forcing a cull of 466 cows and 2,630 pigs presumed to have been infected. Lee said that the North had requested the antibody for the disease, diagnosis kits, spray guns, sterilizers and other related supplies and that South Korean ministry officials were discussing how much to send. According to the minister, the North first appealed to international organizations for assistance in fighting the disease but when Seoul heard about the problem the government immediately offered its help. Lee also said that when former prime minister Lee Hae-chan visited the North recently, Pyongyang asked that Seoul restart shipments of emergency aid supplies for flood victims that were halted after the North's nuclear test last year. [SK aid]
• Seoul to Help North Curb Cattle Disease
  By Lee Jin-woo Staff Reporter Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung said Thursday South Korea would provide North Korea with quarantine equipment to help combat an outbreak of a foot-and-mouth disease. ``On Wednesday, the North asked us to send quarantine equipment while informing us of the current situation regarding the outbreak,'' he told reporters. Foot-and-mouth disease is a highly contagious and sometimes fatal viral disease of cattle and pigs. Lee said the North has culled more than 2,600 cows and 400 pigs since the outbreak in a farm adjacent to Pyongyang in January. ``This aid is also closely linked to the safety of our farms in the South,'' he said. ``We should stop the commutable disease from crossing the inter-Korean border. Otherwise, it may spread to South Korean farms.''
• Pyongyang Demands 300,000 Tons of Fertilizer in Aid
  By Lee Jin-woo Staff Reporter North Korea on Wednesday called for some 300,000 tons of fertilizer in humanitarian aid, the Ministry of Unification announced Wednesday. The demand cames five days after the inter-Korean ministerial talks resumed in Pyongyang after a seven-month hiatus.

• Korea Maranatha Sinyong Ltd Commissioned
  Pyongyang, February 23 (KCNA) --A ceremony of commissioning Korea Maranatha Sinyong Ltd was held here on Thursday. It will contribute to creating funds necessary for business activities at different factories and enterprises and keeping production going at a high rate there. Present there were Paek Hyon Bong, chairman of the DPRK Committee for Promotion of External Economic Cooperation, officials concerned and diplomatic envoys of different countries here. Also on hand was a delegation of Maranatha Trust, Australia led by its President David Thomas Bussau. Speeches were made there. [Economic reform] [Opening] [Religion]
• Small Tractor for the New Zealand Friendship Farm in North Korea
  The NZ - DPRK Society raised funds to provide a small tractor for use in the livestock activities of the NZ Friendship Farm outside Pyongyang.

• Aid to North separated from politics
  Unification Ministry says assistance should continue 'if possible,' regardless of the actions the country takes February 21, 2007     Lee Jae-joung Humanitarian aid will keep flowing to North Korea "if possible," no matter what the country does politically, the Ministry of Unification announced yesterday. [Aid weapon]
• Group to build hospital in Pyongyang
  February 20, 2007 A private organization and doctors from Seoul National University Hospital are working together to close the health gap between South and North Korean children. A private organization called "South and North Korean Children Shoulder to Shoulder" yesterday revealed a plan to build a children's hospital in Pyongyang by June of next year.
• Will the Giant Rabbit Feed North Korea?
  German hare no solution to Pyongyang's food needs Shannon McCann (joethefig)     Email Article  Print Article  Published 2007-02-16 12:19 (KST)    In late 2006, Carl Szmolinsky's prized German Gray Giant rabbit, Robert, won the title of "Germany's Biggest Rabbit." Robert weighed in at an impressive 23 (10.5KG) pounds and gained some worldwide attention due to his size. This caught the attention of North Korean officials. Soon after, officials from the North Korean embassy in Germany contacted Szmolinsky and arranged a visit to look at his famed rabbit collection. They were so impressed with the size of these hares that they purchased eight females and four males, including Robert, and shipped them back to Pyongyang. It has been reported in many media outlets that Pyongyang is planning on establishing a breeding program for these rabbits which it is hoped will eventually help alleviate North Korea's food shortages. This followed a request by Pyongyang's state run news agency in September 2006 that suggested that people should breed rabbits for food. Providing he receives a visa, Szmolinsky is supposed to travel to North Korea in the spring. He will be supervising and training staff to get this breeding program off the ground.
• North Korea Today  
  57th Edition
  Good Friends: Centre for Peace, Human Rights and Refugees
• North Korea Today  
  56th Edition
  Good Friends: Centre for Peace, Human Rights and Refugees
• Pyongyang City Water System Improved
  Pyongyang, February 3 (KCNA) -- The project for renovating the Pyongyang City water system has been completed. This will help ensure the production and supply of drinking water on a higher level on the basis of modern equipment and information means. A ceremony for the completion of the project was held on the spot on Friday. Present were Minister of City Management Choe Jong Gon, Vice-Chairman of the Korean Committee for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries Jon Hyon Chan who is chairman of the DPRK-Kuwait Friendship Association, Vice-Chairman of the Pyongyang City People's Committee Han Hyon Sop, other officials concerned and working people in the city. A visiting delegation of the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development headed by its Deputy Director General Hesham Al-Waqayan was on hand. The minister of City Management made a speech at the ceremony. Then the participants went round the renovated water system.

• North Korea Today  
  55th Edition
  Good Friends: Centre for Peace, Human Rights and Refugees
• `Number of Undernourished N. Koreans More Than Doubled'
  The number of undernourished people in North Korea has more than doubled over the past decade with a diminishing dietary energy supply despite the country's increased food production, the Yonhap News Agency said Friday citing a Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) report. FAO said in its annual report in Rome on Wednesday that it estimated the number of undernourished in North Korea at 7.9 million for 2001-2003, more than twice as many as the 3.6 million recorded for 1990-1992.
• Unification Ministry Transfers Projects to Red Cross
  Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung on Monday signed a memorandum of understanding with Han Wan-Sang, head of the Republic of Korea National Red Cross, that transfers to the aid organization some projects related to North Korea, including separated-family meetings and fertilizer shipments [Aid weapon]
• South debates fate of intended N.K. aid
  Cement, rice, trucks, meant to go North, await their fate As the South Korean government halted aid to North Korea flood victims in October last year in the wake of the North’s nuclear test, the Ministry of Unification and related businesses have been discussing what to do with the remaining unshipped supplies. The government planned to send relief supplies including rice, cement, and construction vehicles through the Korean National Red Cross in August last year to aid the damage sustained from flooding which hit both Koreas the month prior. However, due to the North’s October 9 nuclear test, the South suspended the intended aid shipments. [Aid weapon]
• Report: North Korea Skips Food Ration
  The Associated Press Wednesday, January 17, 2007; 11:15 AM SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea skipped giving extra food rations to its people on New Year's Day, except the elite citizens of Pyongyang, a South Korean aid group said Wednesday, a possible sign the country's food situation may be worsening.
• No food crisis in North Korea despite floods: paper
  Reuters Wednesday, January 3, 2007; 1:40 AM
  SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea has no serious trouble feeding its people despite heavy floods and sanctions by "enemy states" Japan and the United States, a pro-Pyongyang newspaper said on Wednesday, quoting an agricultural official of the North. Even in a good year North Korea does not produce enough grain to feed its people. But aid officials have said the secretive communist state is expected to face a severe shortage soon due to crop damage caused by the July floods and decreased food donations from abroad. "It is not a satisfactory production level relative to our goal, but the problem of feeding the people is in no way at a serious level," Kim Kyong-il of the North's agricultural ministry was quoted in the Choson Sinbo newspaper as saying. The paper is published by an association of North Korean residents in Japan with reports from Pyongyang, and is seen as carrying the official voice of the North. "Because of economic sanctions by enemy countries like the United States and Japan, there have been problems in a series of plans to modernize farming," the newspaper said. [Sanctions effect]

• North needs to get serious about humanitarian need
  [Editorial] North Korea’s food situation looks serious. This year’s harvest was not a good one, and ever since Pyongyang launched a missile in July, the South has withheld rice and fertilizer aid, and there has been a dramatic drop in international aid, as well. Seoul says humanitarian aid should be something that should be "pure," unattached to any political situation, but it is still unable to take action as it seems to be merely looking around, unsure about what to do. We hope to see it take a profoundly changed approach before the situation gets worse.
• ‘Too Early to Resume Aid to N. Korea’
  By Lee Jin-woo Staff Reporter Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung on Thursday said North Korea should make more progress in the nuclear disarmament talks before South Korea can resume its aid shipments to Pyongyang. [Aid weapon]
• N. Korea in need of 1.5 million tons of rice, S. Korean activist says
  The international community is required to provide at least 1.5 million tons of rice to North Korea to help prevent a repeat of the famine that struck the communist state in the mid-1990s, a South Korean civic activist said Tuesday.
• Seoul's aid to N. Korea reaches record
  The South Korean government's humanitarian aid to North Korea this year surpassed 200 billion won for the first time, the Unification Ministry said yesterday. The tally between January and October showed that the amount of rice and fertilizers supplied to the destitute state reached 210.8 billion won. It is the largest annual volume since 1995. By year, the respective amount was 185.4 billion in 1995, followed by 2.4 billion in 1996, 24 billion in 1997, 15.4 billion in 1998, 15.4 billion in 1999 and 33.9 billion in 2000. The amount surged to 97.8 billion won in 2001 and maintained a similar amount on a yearly basis. [Aid weapon]
• FAO says North Korea would need minimum 1 million tons of food aid
  North Korea completed its crop harvest, and results suggest the country will need at least 1 million tons of food aid from the outside, according to a report released Thursday by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). In "Crop Prospects and Food Situation," the fourth such report put out by the FAO, North Korea was categorized as a nation with widespread lack of access to food.

• North Korea Today  
  40th Edition
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• 'Food Aid to North Could Be Resumed'
  By Kim Sue-young Staff Reporter As North Korea has decided to return to the six-party talks, international food aid to the Stalinist state will likely to be resumed, a U.N. food agency said Wednesday. Since the North's nuclear test, food-supplying nations have shunned sending aid because they cannot be convinced whether the aid is used for humanitarian purpose, Anthony Banbury, World Food Program (WFP) regional director for Asia, said. "Returning to the six-party talks can help create a more favorable overall environment," Banbury said in an interview with the Radio Free Asia. [Aid weapon]

• Disastrous North Korean Famine Looms
  By Peter Alford
  Introduction by John Feffer
  What are the causes and consequences of North Korea’s extended famine of recent years? Though it is not blessed with plentiful arable land or a consistently temperate climate, North Korea has long tried to feed itself and avoid dependence on the outside world. Food security represents, for the government in Pyongyang, a very concrete expression of juche, or self-reliance. Though such a policy has meant that one-third of the population remains rural—a very high percentage for a modern, industrialized country—North Korea continues to push hard to guarantee sufficiency in basic grains.
• Food Aid to Pyongyang Should Continue: WFP
  By Kim Sue-young Staff Reporter Amid increasing denunciations of North Korea's proclaimed nuclear test on Monday, the United Nations food agency said yesterday that food support for the reclusive regime should continue. [Aid weapon]

• North Korea Today  
  38th Edition
  Good Friends: Centre for Peace, Human Rights and Refugees
• medical supplies for North Korea
  Aid to North Korea: Rep. Bae Ki-sun, right, of the governing Uri Party, who chairs the National Assembly's Special Committee on Peaceful Inter-Korean Unification, delivers medical supplies for North Korea to Park Jong-hwa, president of the Korea International Foundation for Health and Development, in front of the Assembly buildingin Yoido, Seoul, Monday. /Korea Times photo
• North Korea Today  
  37th Edition
  Good Friends: Centre for Peace, Human Rights and Refugees
• Aid Materials from China
  Pyongyang, September 20 (KCNA) -- The government of China provided the DPRK with aid materials including food and diesel fuel in connection with flood damage.
• North Korea Today  
  36th Edition
  Good Friends: Centre for Peace, Human Rights and Refugees
• Printing press to give notebooks to N.K. students Pyongyang press being restored; production at a trickle
  A supervisor of the Hankyoreh Foundation for Reunification and Culture, a journalist, and four printing technicians arrived on September 8 to a printing press in Pyongyang, which is being restored by the foundation to provide notebooks to North Korean children. When they arrived, the ‘Pyongyang Children’s Learning Plant’ was nearly quiet, with few machines in normal operation yet. At the beginning of this year, The Hankyoreh pledged to turn a rundown printing press in Pyongyang into a student notebook-printing facility by October. The pledge came after North Korea offered to help the Hankyoreh’s cultural foundation build the press.  
• North Korea food shortage reaches 800,000 tons
  The World Food Program yesterday said it estimates that North Korea's food shortage has reached 800,000 tons this year. Jean-Pierre de Margerie, head of WFP's Pyongyang office, told the Voice of America the impoverished country needs at least 5.3 million tons of rice each year. He said this year's shortage is mainly due to lower food production after floods this summer, fewer imports from China and South Korea's suspension of its food aid.
• North Faces Food Shortage
  North Korea will likely suffer from a shortage of about 800,000 tons of food this year, an official of the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) said on Thursday. Decreased income from China and South Korea's aid cut, as well as floods in July, will aggravate the shortage, Jean Pierre de Margerie, North Korea country director for the agency, said in an interview with Voice of America. ``800,000 tons is a massive quantity, considering the North's annual need of 5.3 million tons,'' he added. The Canadian director said he will meet the North Korean government next week and discuss WFP support in more areas.
• WFP Expects NK to Run Out of Food in 2 Months
  SEOUL (Yonhap) _ The U.N. food agency said Tuesday that North Korean children may have to spend this year's Christmas without food unless the country gets additional donations from abroad within the coming weeks. John M. Powell, deputy executive director of the World Food Program (WFP), stressed that its stockpiles for North Korea will dry up within the next two months without any fresh pledges. ``We expect to be running out of commodities within the next two months,'' he told a press conference in Seoul. He said it takes at least three or four months to translate a pledge into food that can be consumed by a hungry child. ``Unless we get a pledge in the next month or so, no one will eat after Christmas,'' he said.
• North Korea Today
  Good Friends: Centre for Peace, Human Rights and Refugees
  34th edition, September 2006
• North Korea Today
  Good Friends: Centre for Peace, Human Rights and Refugees
  34th edition, August 2006
  Latest flood has produced casualties and damages more than the Earthquake in Pakistan and the Tsunami in Indonesia past years. The North Korean government and the North Korean media (including Chosunshinbo????), however, drastically downsized the figures of casualties (dead and missing) while the Korean Central Broadcasting?????? stated that this was the ‘worst flood in a century’ and the latest toll on the damaged infrastructure roads and bridges is far greater than the initial reports whereas the human casualties are unchanging. It is most likely that once the actual magnitude of the flood is known to wider public and the international community, the government could not save face and would have to be responsible for the political consequences if and when the true scale of the damages of the flood is known.

• South Korean flood aid for North
  South Korean officials met with Northern counterparts on Saturday South Korea has pledged 100,000 tons of rice and construction material to flood-ravaged North Korea. The pledge comes on top of a 20bn won (US$20m) donation that the South's government and civic groups have promised to their communist neighbour. "It is a separate case from annual aid to the North," Vice Minister of Unification Shin Eon-sang said during a news conference. North Korea was hit by torrential rains and high winds last month.
• Korea April 2006-08-20
  A personal newsletter written by Daniel Gerster, of the Swiss NGO Campus fuer Christus
  A personal note about this newsletter:
  My personal reports often sound more positive than one would expect. I am aware that there are things in North Korea that should never receive our approval. However, in my opinion, the media covers these elements more than enough. Also, we will never be able to make a positive difference as long as we only focus on the negative aspects or try to portray others in a bad light. There are many people living in Korea who just happen to be Koreans. I have great respect especially for a lot of Koreans, who, because of their living conditions, have remained natural, almost pure. There are many things that they could teach us too. People whom I have a lot of wishes for, whom I will never forget and whom I will hopefully see one day again. The photos do not always have a direct connection to the accompanying text, but are all taken ourselves.
  Daniel Gerster
• North Korea to accept UN food aid
  The flooding has wiped out tracts of agricultural land The UN food agency says North Korea has agreed to accept emergency food aid in the wake of heavy flooding in July. The decision is a reversal for Pyongyang, which said previously that it did not need international help and could manage by itself. North Korea was hit by torrential rains and high winds last month. Official media said the severe weather killed hundreds of people and left thousands homeless, as well as damaging large tracts of agricultural land. The World Food Programme (WFP) said in a statement that it would supply 150 metric tons of food to feed 13,000 residents in South Phyongan province, 80km (50 miles) east of the capital. North Korea also agreed on Thursday to send its Red Cross officials to meet counterparts in South Korea on Saturday to discuss food and reconstruction aid.
• Aid groups look to ship supplies to North Korea
  By Choe Sang-Hun International Herald Tribune Published: August 17, 2006
  SEOUL The World Food Program and the South Korean government said Thursday that they would soon start shipping emergency aid for flood victims in North Korea, as relief officials scrambled to estimate the extent of a humanitarian crisis stemming from torrential rains, floods and landslides last month.
  Outside governments and humanitarian agencies are still largely in the dark about the damages what damage had occurred in North Korea.
  In one estimate, Good Friends, a Seoul-based relief agency, announced on Wednesday that more than 54,700 North Koreans were dead or missing and 2.4 million people - a tenth of the North's population - homeless as a result of the floods.
• Charity sees much higher toll from huge North Korean floods
  By Choe Sang-Hun International Herald Tribune Published: August 16, 2006
  SEOUL More than 54,700 people are believed to have been killed or to be still missing from massive floods last month in North Korea, a South Korean aid group said Wednesday, adding that the toll could rise by a few thousand. Good Friends, a Buddhist charity based in Seoul that releases a weekly newsletter on North Korea, said that the floods, which were triggered by torrential rains, had also left 2.5 million North Koreans homeless.
  Black-market grain prices are skyrocketing, as damaged roads blocked what meager ration shipments were available. Grain may be in short supply because the United Nations Security Council called for economic sanctions following North Korea's missile tests on July 5, and South Korea suspended a planned delivery of 500,000 tons of rice for the North. [Sanctions effect]
• Seoul to Give $20 Million to North's Flood Victims
  By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter South Korea will provide North Korea with 20 billion won ($20.6 million) worth of relief goods to help flood victims, a senior Unification Ministry official said on Friday. The government will match 9.86 billion won worth of funds raised by civic groups in South Korea. ``We decided to join the efforts by civic groups to help rebuild flood damage in the North after considering the requests from various sectors of society,'' Vice Unification Minister Shin Un-sang said at a press briefing. The aid package from the civic groups will not include rice as it will require large amount of funds, he said. Instead, less expensive items such as medicine, clothes, flour and instant noodles will be delivered.
• Seoul to Resume Rice Shipment to North Korea
  By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter South Korea's shipment of rice to North Korea through the Red Cross will soon resume to help flood victims, Seoul officials said on Thursday. It is a reversal of Seoul's policy established in early July when Pyongyang launched missiles, raising security concerns in Northeast Asia. But the ministry emphasized that the decision was made solely on humanitarian grounds.
• North wants aid, just not those noodles
    August 10, 2006 ? North Korea formally asked South Korean civic groups for humanitarian aid for its flood victims ? but it doesn't want instant noodles. The country said it does want construction materials, construction equipment, blankets and medicine, according to a fax sent from the communist country to a South Korean civic group. The message was the first formal request from the North seeking aid. The North Korean Committee for Implementation of the June 15 Joint Declaration sent the message to its South Korean counterpart yesterday, thanking the civic groups here for helping the North's flood victims. In the message, North Korea specified what they prefer to be included in the aid package. Instant noodles and clothes were singled out as less-wanted items. The South Korean committee will meet with its North Korean counterpart tomorrow at the Mount Kumgang resort to further discuss assistance. The South Korean committee has launched a fundraising drive for North Korean flood victims. Aid packages by some civic groups have already been sent to the North, and more were on their way yesterday from Incheon. Unification Minister Lee Jong-seok is scheduled to meet today with Han Wan-sang, South Korea's Red Cross chief, to discuss the government's flood relief program for the North. Floor leaders of the five political parties will also meet today to discuss the aid to the North.
• Seoul to Resume Rice Shipment to North Korea
  By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter South Korea's shipment of rice to North Korea through the Red Cross will soon resume to help flood victims, Seoul officials said on Thursday. It is a reversal of Seoul's policy established in early July when Pyongyang launched missiles, raising security concerns in Northeast Asia. But the ministry emphasized that the decision was made solely on humanitarian grounds.
• ROK MoU on floods and railways
  The Central and Pyongyang Broadcasting Station reported on July 26 that North Korea had held a celebrative central reporting meeting to mark the 5 3 rd anniversary of its victory in the national liberation war .
  The Central Broadcasting Station reported on July 21 that heavy rain had caused severe human and physical damages in Pyongannamdo ( Province ), Gangwondo ( Province ) and Hwanghaenamdo ( Province ) from July 14 to 1 6, and North Korea is concentrating on rehabilitating the damaged areas . The detailed reports are following :
  There were a lot of casualties in Pyongannamdo . With 6,200 houses and 490 public buildings being destructed and drowned , vast farmlands was also drowned , lost and buried in the same area .200 roads and bridges and railroad tracks were destroyed and electricity and telecommunication networks were severed . Gangwondo also suffered from the similar magnitude of damages :6,000 private houses and 200 public buildings destructed and farmland drowned , lost and buried . Especially , in terms of arable lands , Hwanghaenamdo was the most affected area . International organizations such as the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies ( IFRC ) urgently reported on the flood in North Korea and appealed for assistance to the international community . They are carrying out relief activities in the limited areas they are allowed to access by the North Korean authorities but complaining about difficulties such as lack of relief goods and medicine , and defective disaster rehabilitation systems . (As of July 25) Casualties Refugees Damaged houses Destructed roads Damaged arable land Estimate by IFRC More than 248 people 12,585 households 20,885 172.3 km 13,290 ha Estimate by WFP 60,000 people 30,000 ha
  The Central Broadcasting Station reported that a delegation from the Russian Railroad Corporation had paid a visit to North Korea and signed a protocol to the effect that the two parties would complete railroad tracks reconstruction between Hasan ( Russia ) and Rajin ( North Korea ) within the end of this year . [Floods] [Railways]
• North Korea Requests Flood Aid from South
  North Korea has made its first official request for South Korea to provide aid to help the North recover from recent flooding, the South Korean side of an inter-Korean committee said Wednesday. In a fax sent to the South Korean side (of the committee), the North Korean side made a request for assistance with a specific list of relief equipment the North needs. The North expressed its gratitude for South Korean civic organizations' efforts to help repair flood damage, the committee said in a statement. According to reports, heavy rains left hundreds dead and thousands missing or injured in the North last month. The request came amid the South's government's suspension of aid, including humanitarian assistance, to the North following its missile tests on July 5. [Aid weapon]
• 51st DPRK TRIP REPORT
  Kathi Zellweger, Caritas HK
  18 TO 29 JULY 2006
  In July and early August heavy rainstorms hit parts of the DPRK. At the time of the visit, it was not clear how many lives had been lost, how many people were made homeless and how serious the damage to infrastructure and crop was. The government was still assessing the situation. The IFRC had, however, through their national counterpart, started to distribute family emergency kits and WFP had offered food aid. With the involvement of resident NGO reduced and the WFP program scaled down, doubts remain as to how the community away from Pyongyang will cope in future. The struggle for survival will continue and bad weather is affecting the already fragile situation.
  * In areas visited, no major flood damage was observed, but local officials knew that some places had been badly affected. The government, however, was at the time of the visit not considering appealing for international support, although donations would not be rejected. *
  The Ministry of Agriculture estimated a loss of approximately 100,000 tons of grain with some 30,000 hectares of arable land flooded. *
  People were busy with various community services (embankment repairs, building and renovation jobs or working in the fields) and the opening hours of the markets in Pyongyang, possibly also elsewhere in the country, had been reduced to 1:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. *
  The market visited was very busy and the availability of goods – for those with money – has again increased. Grain is officially still no longer sold in the market and food rations from the Public Distribution System were reported to be irregular. *
  Since the introduction of the first economic reform steps 4 years ago it is obvious that the ‘taste of money’ has penetrated North Korean society, resulting in increased pressure and control, but also in a greater awareness of prices and costs of goods and services. *
  At the market, the exchange rate for US dollars and Euros had remained similar to March this year, my previous visit, at Won 2,900. *
  In the fields hardly any tractors were operating, women and children were busy weeding and for heavier work, oxen are used. In many fields the maize looked stunted and farmers mentioned that the agricultural season had started late and in July the temperatures were too low. A decrease in the maize harvest is very likely. [Economic reform]
• Call for flood-aid for North gains momentum
  South Korea is considering a one-time package of aid to avert famine in North Korea despite strains between the neighbors over Pyongyang's July 5 missile tests, officials said yesterday. Three major storms hit North Korea last month, causing floods that killed at least 151 people, and possibly more.
• GNP chair poses mission North
    August 08, 2006 ? The leader of South Korea's main opposition party proposed Monday to send a fact-finding mission to North Korea to assess the extent of flood damage in the communist country. "It's a good idea to visit North Korea to grasp exactly how broad the damage is," said Kang Jae-sup, chairman of the conservative Grand National Party, at a party meeting.
• '549 dead' in N Korea flooding
  The flooding has wiped out tracts of agricultural land At least 549 people died and another 295 are still missing as a result of floods which struck North Korea last month, a pro-Pyongyang daily said. Days of heavy rain caused flooding which North Korean media have already confirmed led to "hundreds" of deaths. But the figures, from the Japan-based daily, are the most specific released so far on the extent of the disaster. Last month, the UN food agency estimated that about 60,000 people had been left homeless by the flooding. The Choson Shinbo newspaper is based in Japan and is run by a pro-North Korea association. Over 7,000 homes were destroyed or damaged, the daily said, and almost 40,000 acres (16,000 ha) of farmland had been washed away.
• North Raps Lawmaker Who Wants to Help Flood Victims
  By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter A North Korean media denounced a conservative South Korean lawmaker on Saturday for saying that Seoul needs to give relief goods to the North's flood victims but should scrap inter-Korean economic cooperation projects. Rep. Chung Hyung-keun of the largest opposition Grand National Party (GNP) on Thursday raised the issue of helping the North, which is still suffering from the recent floods. But he once again urged Seoul to stop the joint industrial park project in Kaesong and the tourism programs in Mt. Kumgang to block money flowing to the North's weapons development programs.
• North Welcomes Aid
  North Korea's Inter-Korean Economic Cooperation Committee took a positive stance yesterday toward accepting humanitarian aid from South Korea, Yonhap News Agency reported. "There's no reason for us to reject flood relief from the South as long as it's not politically motivated," Kim Song-won, head of the committee said from Dandong, China. The remark is the first positive comment from a North Korean official on flood relief from the South amid chilly inter-Korean relations following last month's missile threats
• Parties Back Flood Aid to North Korea
  By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter South Korea is considering offering relief goods to flood-hit North Korea amid soured relations between the two Koreas over Pyongyang's missile launches last month, a government source said Friday. The move came as political parties and civic groups call for extending food and medicines to the North where nearly 300 people are reportedly dead or missing after three major storms last month. The storms displaced tens of thousands and devastated the North's potato crop that is likely to push the impoverished regime into famine, according to the World Food Programme (WFP). The government is seeking to match the amount of flood-recovery materials to the Communist regime sent by civic organizations in the South, hoping the humanitarian aid will help improve the worsened inter-Korean relationship, the source said, asking not to be named.
• With bipartisan nod, Seoul to fund NGO flood aid
    August 05, 2006 ? Prompted by bipartisan recommendations from political parties that the government should send medicines and emergency food to flood victims in the North, a government official said yesterday it will provide financial support upon request for humanitarian assistance projects by non-governmental groups. "The Grand National and the Democratic Labor parties said [Thursday] that humanitarian aid programs should resume, and we welcome such a position," Uri Party chairman Kim Geun-tae said yesterday. "Humanitarian aid to the North must not be blocked by politics." He urged the government to resume its humanitarian aid to the North unconditionally. After North Korea fired seven missiles and refused discussions about the launch with the South last month, Seoul withheld previously promised rice and fertilizer aid in protest. [Aid weapon]
• Help the North, for now
  [EDITORIALS] The floods that tore through North Korea have reportedly left immeasurable damage. The human casualties, including the dead and the missing, so far number 10,000 though reports on the number of victims range from 1 million to 1.5 million. Although we cannot know the actual situation of comprehensive damage because North Korean authorities have not made an official report, things certainly seem grave since North Korea has canceled not only the Arirang Festival but also the August 15 Unification Festival. Taking into consideration the pain of the North Korean people, it is proper for the government and normal people to take the initiative and help the North Koreans, but even if we want to assist them, the status of the North and South Korean relationship makes it difficult to do so. Perhaps this is due to the chilly relationship between the two countries since the North's recent test-firing of missiles, but either way, North Korea isn't putting out its hand. [Aid weapon]
• Harvest Still Possible in North
  By Kim Sue-young Staff Reporter Torrential rain in North Korea last month destroyed 3,000 hectares of arable land and submerged 20,000 hectares, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. This year's grain production will not be affected, however, when the inundated land dries, the organization predicted. ``The total area has been severely impacted and we calculated the total affected area is two percent of the total national crop area,'' Cheng Fang, an Asian officer and economist in the Commodities and Trade Division at the FAO, said yesterday in an interview with Radio Free Asia (RFA). Damaged crops included corn and beans but the flood will not harm the rice harvest when the water dries, he added. ``The land totally washed away, that means almost all crops are lost, but for the submerged areas, some production can be recovered, like rice,'' he said. People are concerned about the North's flood damage as it cancelled the ``Arirang Festival,'' mass games set to start next month, due to the flood. In addition, ``Good Friends,'' a private aid group for the North estimated 30,000 hectares of farmland destroyed, equivalent to 100,000 tons of lost food production. Alistair Henley, regional director of the International Red Cross, however, refuted the toll Wednesday in an interview with RFA saying North Korea is less damaged than China. ``We're dealing at the same time with bad floods here in China where we're talking about at least tens of millions of people being displaced,'' he said. ``The situation in North Korea is absolutely, in no way, anything like that.'' Fang also said that we cannot forecast the flood will lead to poor crop production because 90 percent of crops are still on the submerged ground. ``I believe the North can gather a good harvest depending on the coming months' weather conditions,'' he stressed.
• Unification Ministry Under Pressure to Provide Flood Relief to North Korea
  By Lee Jin-woo Staff Reporter
  Relief for North Korean flood victims: Members of the Join Together Society, a South Korean relief organization, pose in front of a container ship before sending flood aid, including instant noodles and flour, to North Korea at a port in Inchon, west of Seoul, Thursday. South Korea has suspended government-level humanitarian aid to the North since Pyongyang test-fired seven missiles on July 5. / Korea Times Photo by Ryu Hyo-jin Heavy damage reportedly inflicted by torrential rain in North Korea last month has put South Korea's Ministry of Unification in a dilemma with increasing calls for humanitarian flood relief to the North, despite ongoing chilly inter-Korean relations after the North's missile threats. The ministry said on Thursday a detailed report on the North's flood damage, whether produced by the communist country or the United Nations, should be a prerequisite for it to consider sending flood relief to the North. [Aid weapon]
• North Korea's folly
  [EDITORIAL] Pyongyang turned down a recent offer from the South Korean Red Cross to send relief materials to victims of calamitous flooding in the North. It reportedly said it would use its own resources for the work. Was it putting a bold face on one of the biggest natural disasters it has experienced in recent years? Or, was it displaying its ill feeling against South Korea, which refused to discuss its request for massive food aid after the July 5 test firing of missiles?
• Flood Relief for North Korea Puts Unification Ministry Into Dilemma
  By Lee Jin-woo Staff Reporter Relief for North Korean flood victims: Members of the Join Together Society, a South Korean relief organization, pose in front of a container ship before sending flood aid, including instant noodles and flour, to North Korea at a port in Inchon, west of Seoul, Thursday. South Korea has suspended government-level humanitarian aid to the North since Pyongyang test-fired seven missiles on July 5. / Korea Times Photo by Ryu Hyo-jin Heavy damage reportedly inflicted by torrential rains in North Korea last month have put South Korea's Ministry of Unification into a dilemma with increasing calls for humanitarian flood relief to the North, despite ongoing chilly inter-Korean relations after the North's missile threats. [Aid weapon]
• N. Korea declines aid from Red Cross after flooding
  From news reports North Korea, which was hit by torrential rain and flash floods last month, declined offers of aid from the International Red Cross and its South Korean branch, an official said. "We asked the North Korean government what it would need in terms of relief aid to help in their efforts to recover after last month's heavy rains," said Kim Hyung-sup, a spokesman at South Korea's National Red Cross. "North Korean authorities replied that while they appreciate the offer, they are able to manage on their own. I seriously doubt that." The International Committee of the Red Cross - to which the South Korean Red Cross belongs - also offered aid, which North Korea declined, Kim said.
  Hundreds of people are dead or missing in North Korea after the rains, the country's official Korean Central News Agency said on July 21. Floods last week also damaged farmland, tens of thousands of shelters and public buildings. Hundreds of roads, bridges and railways were destroyed, it said. South Korea was also hit and damages in the South are estimated at around 2 trillion won ($2.1 billion). North Korea canceled two festivals this month, citing relief efforts. It postponed its Arirang Festival, featuring its mass games, as well as an annual festival with South Korea to mark their independence from Japanese colonial rule at the end of World War II. "The biggest problem for North Korea will be food shortages, especially in winter and next year, because most of its farmlands were flooded," Kim said. "Water and medical supplies are likely to be in demand, either because of the wounded as well as concerns of infectious diseases that may spread in the aftermath of the rains."
• Private Group to Send Aid to Flood Victims in North
  By Kim Sue-young Staff Reporter A private South Korean organization plans to provide aid to North Korean victims of floods caused by the recent torrential rains, an official of the group said Tuesday. A ship carrying the aid will depart from Inchon, west of Seoul, tomorrow and arrive at North Korean port city of Nampo, one or two days later, according to Ryun Hyun-hee, a public relations officer of the Join Together Society, an international relief group.

• Flooding in North Displaces 60,000
  The flooding that displaced thousands of South Koreans and caused billions of won in damages didn't limit its destruction to the southern half of the peninsula. An estimated 60,000 North Koreans have become displaced or homeless due to recent floods, and the country is believed to have lost up to 100,000 tons of food from the submergence of farmland, Yonhap News Agency reported on Monday. An inter-agency team, including people from the WFP and the International Federation of the Red Cross, made a field visit on Thursday to Songchon County, South Pyongan Province, where the damage has been most severe, the U.N. World Food Program (WFP) said in report released late last week.
• N Koreans homeless after floods
  N Korea has been reliant on aid for more than a decade About 60,000 people have been left homeless by recent flooding in North Korea, according to the UN food agency. The floods have also destroyed 30,000 hectares (74,000 acres) of farmland, causing the loss of 100,000 tonnes of food, the World Food Programme said.
• Who’s Using Humanitarian Aid as a Political Weapon?
  By Stephen Gowans July 21, 2006
  When Zimbawe’s ZANU-PF government was accused of using food aid to punish political supporters of the Western-backed opposition Movement for Democratic Change, a hue and cry was raised in all quarters. Newspaper editorialists, government officials, elected representatives, NGO spokesmen and human-rights imperialists deplored the manipulation of humanitarian assistance.
  But when the Washington Post reported that South Korea had suspended food aid to the North to force Pyongyang back to six-party talks (1), the silence was deafening. There were no outraged editorials, no marches, no letter writing campaigns.
  The common sense view is that only Washington’s “outposts of tyranny” use food as a weapon, but never the US and never its allies. On the contrary, Western powers and their allies frequently create humanitarian crises to pressure civilian populations or their governments to behave in desired ways [Aid weapon]
• S. Korean Aid to North Korea Tops $1 Billion
  South Korea's economic assistance to North Korea in the first half of this year topped 141 billion won ($148 million), while the total government aid to the impoverished state since 1995 exceeded 1 trillion won ($1 billion). According to government statistics on Sunday, the Unification Ministry gave assistance worth 141 billion won to the North in the first half of the year, the highest ever on a yearly basis. Last year's assistance reached around 123 billion won, including rice aid. [Statistics]
• Flows of aid to stop until crisis abates
  South willing to meet North only on missiles, weapons
  July 08, 2006 ? The Roh administration yesterday started edging toward a tougher stance on the North Korean missile tests, announcing that it will directly challenge the North about those tests at inter-Korean ministerial talks next week. A senior government official said that Seoul would withhold promised aid to the North until the missile crisis is over. That decision did not include a delay in the provision of the last promised fertilizer shipment to North Korea, however; a ship left port yesterday bound for North Korea with the last 20,000 tons of that assistance. [Aid weapon]
• Seoul's W1.2tr funds on N.K. now uncertain
          Uncertainties caused by North Korea's test-firing of missiles are likely to slow down Seoul's funding of economic and humanitarian aid programs for the communist country and execution of funds earmarked in this year's budget. The Ministry of Planning and Budget said yesterday it was reviewing a request by the Unification Ministry of 1.18 trillion won ($1.24 billion) for its inter-Korean programs next year, slightly less than this year's 1.2 trillion won. However, officials at the ministry were cautious in saying that the escalating tension surrounding the North's missiles could require some adjustment in the budget.

• Dr. Corn Ready to Reap More Peace Corns in NK
  By Seo Dong-shin Staff Reporter
      Kim Soon-kwon, president of the International Corn Foundation (ICF), vividly remembers the time when Kwon Ho-ung, now Pyongyang's chief delegate to the inter-Korean ministerial talks, and Ra Un-sok, North Korea's key official involved in inter-Korean businesses at Kaesong and Mt. Kumgang, used to follow him around through the North's cornfields. In an interview with The Korea Times, Kim, 61, fondly recalled the mid-1990s when he started to visit the impoverished North with the aim of developing hybrid corn, and to sow the ``seeds of reunification.'' Kwon and Ra were his guides and ``quite hard-working in the fields,'' he said. ``And they used to say, Dr. Kim, no matter how rough the political situation gets between the North and South, the technological cooperation on corn will eventually bring us together. One day when you're working on a cornfield up in the mountains in the North, we'll come running to you, shouting, 'Dr. Kim! Reunification has come!'''
• Civic Aid to N. Korea on Steady Increase
  By Seo Dong-shin Staff Reporter More civic organizations have begun to provide humanitarian aid to North Korea since the communist country's food crisis in the late 1990s. The aid ranges from agricultural assistance to medical services and services targeting children or the disabled. Drawing from the Inter-Korean Cooperation Fund, the South Korean government has also increased the subsidies it provides civic organizations helping the North. This year, the government set aside some 11.5 billion won for that purpose, up 1.1 billion from last year. The comparable sum, given to a number of civic organizations in a matching-fund way, stood at 3.3 billion won in 2000, 3.8 billion won in 2001, 5.4 billion won in 2002, 7.4 billion won in 2003 and 8.8 billion won in 2004. This year, 50 projects, including the Eugene Bell Foundation's project to wipe out tuberculosis and World Vision's seed potatoes project are drawing from the Inter-Korean Cooperation Fund, according to the Unification Ministry.
  Kim said that monitoring activities for civic aid have also become easier in the past years. ``At first, the North did not understand the need because it has a unique state-control system. But now, North Koreans seem to understand that each civic organization has its sponsors and they want to know about how their contributions are used.''

• North Korea Food Aid Revived, Without U.S.
  Washington Concerned About Oversight of Who Gets Aid
  By KIRIT RADIA May 11, 2006 - In an agreement reached Wednesday in Pyongyang and announced today, the United Nation's World Food Program will resume food aid to North Korea within two weeks. The renewed program, which will be significantly smaller than the one that ended in December 2005, was allowed to resume as North Korea once again faces severe food shortages. WFP's regional director for Asia Tony Banbury called the agreement "an important breakthrough." "We have worked hard to reach this point, now we have signed the deal, and we can restart our food aid operations immediately," Banbury said. The program is aimed at the most vulnerable of North Korea's impoverished population and intended to improve nutritional deficiencies within the country. Specifically, it will target women and children in the country's poorest regions. The United States, however, has not given any food to North Korea since the previous program's suspension and will not participate in the new program, citing concerns about the delivery of such aid within North Korea [Aid weapon]
• North Korea at Dire Food Impasse
  In the long term, food aid may undermine Kim Jong-il
  Bhuwan Thapaliya (Bhuwan) Published on 2006-05-19 07:38 (KST)
  North Korea has the world worried about its nuclear weapons potential. But that's not what most worries South Koreans, who are concerned about its menacing food crisis and its possible economic collapse. After decades of a command economy, North Korea is almost stripped bare and has become one of the poorest nations as well as the largest food aid recipient in the world, while South Korea, by contrast, under capitalism, has gained economic momentum and has developed as a model for emerging nations. [Bizarre]
• Agape International, "Project North Korea",
  Newsletter from Swiss NGO, September 2005
• Rakrang Physical Rehabilitation Center Starts Operation
  Pyongyang, May 8 (KCNA) -- The Rakrang Physical Rehabilitation Center located in Thongil Street, Pyongyang, has begun its operation on the occasion of the Day of the World Red Cross and the Red Crescent (May 8). The center, with a total floor space of 2,900 square meters, has been built on the site of 4,300 square meters by the joint efforts of the Central Committee of the DPRK Red Cross Society and the International Committee of the Red Cross. It, equipped well with necessary facilities for diagnosis and treatment of disabled people, has a patient assessment room, casting room, plaster modification room, sick ward, physiotherapy department room and a modern orthopedic surgical operating theater. The center produces various kinds of prostheses, crutches and tricycles for more than 400 cripples a year. Michael Rechsteiner, head of Physical Rehabilitation Programme of the ICRC, told KCNA at the centre that the ICRC has made a contribution to treating over 2,300 disabled persons at the prosthesis center built in Songrim City, North Hwanghae Province, since it started activities in the DPRK in 2002.
• U.N. to Resume Food Aid to N. Korea
  By Edward Cody Washington Post Foreign Service Friday, May 12, 2006; Page A17
  BEIJING, May 11 -- After a government-imposed shutdown of more than four months, the World Food Program announced Thursday that it would resume food aid to hungry North Koreans, but on a sharply reduced scale.
  Tony Banbury, the U.N. agency's regional director for Asia, said he signed an accord with the government in Pyongyang that will allow 10 staff members to operate a $102 million feeding program, helping 1.9 million of the neediest North Koreans over the next two years.
  The accord, reached Wednesday after prolonged negotiations, ended the uncertainty that has prevailed since the government of Kim Jong Il, the North Korean leader, announced in August that it would accept development aid but no longer wanted food aid. That forced the World Food Program, which runs North Korea's main feeding operation, to halt work at the end of December. Banbury called the new agreement "an important breakthrough" for North Korea's undernourished poor. But he said the number of people receiving food would drop considerably under restrictions laid down by North Korean officials -- from 6 million in 163 counties under last year's $200 million-plus program to 1.9 million in 30 counties under the new program.
  "They explained this by saying they needed less food, that their crops were getting better and that they did not want to create a culture of dependency," Banbury told reporters during a stop in Beijing.
• China Donates Equipment and Materials to DPRK
  Pyongyang, May 3 (KCNA) -- The Chinese government donated equipment for examining bird flu and materials for preventing it to the DPRK. The equipment and materials presented by the Chinese government this time will help prevent the spread of bird flu in the country via its border and trading ports.
• US Rights group Urges Pyongyang to Accept Monitoring of Food Aid
  SEOUL (Yonhap) _ A U.S. human rights organization on Thursday urged North Korea to allow international monitoring of food distribution, saying its recent policy changes on outside aid may cause renewed hunger among its people. Recent decisions by Pyongyang to suspend operations of the World Food Program in the country and revive the food rationing system may leave many in hunger, said Washington-based Human Rights Watch in a press conference in Seoul.
  North Korea experts in Seoul, however, said recent decisions by the communist country suggest it is making efforts to stand on its own rather than depend on emergency donations. And the revival of the public distribution system illustrates its improved food situation, they said.
  ``When the rationing system was reduced (in the late 1990s) it was because the government didn't have food to distribute. Now that it has expanded the rationing system, it is in a better situation,'' said Chon Hyun-joon, senior research fellow with the Korea Institute for National Unification, a public research body on North Korea in Seoul. [Manipulation] [Friction]
• North Korea: Policy Changes May Foster New Hunger
  Government Must Grant Fair Access to Food and Aid
  (Seoul, May 4, 2006) ·Recent decisions by the North Korean government to suspend the operation of the World Food Programme, ban the private sale of grain, and fully reinstate the discredited Public Distribution System could lead to renewed hunger for North Korea? already poor and destitute people, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today. While most international discussion of North Korea is about nuclear weapons, hunger remains a serious problem. Regressive policies from a government that doesn? allow free expression or independent observers to monitor the situation could someday lead to a repeat of the food crisis of the 1990s.
  The 34-page report, ·a href="http://hrw.org/reports/2006/northkorea0506/">A Matter of Survival: The North Korean Government? Control of Food and the Risk of Hunger,·examines recent worrisome developments in North Korea? food policies, its marginalization of the World Food Programme (WFP), its refusal to allow adequate monitoring of food aid, and the implications of the government? new policies. Human Rights Watch noted that only a decade ago, similar policies led to the famine that killed anywhere from 580,000 to more than 3 million, according to independent researchers and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). [Manipulation]
• A Matter of Survival The North Korean Government's Control of Food and the Risk of Hunger
  Human Rights Watch, New York

• Catholics Leave for Pyongyang
  SEOUL (Yonhap) _ A delegation from the South Korean Catholic Church left for Pyongyang early Wednesday to tour regions in the North it has provided with humanitarian assistance, the Archdiocese of Seoul said. The 61-member delegation from the Seoul archdiocese, led by Monsignor Choi Chang-hwa, will take field trips in and around Pyongyang until Saturday, it said. ``This is the first time a Catholic delegation has traveled to North Korea on such a large scale, and with laymen included,'' Ma Young-ju, an archdiocese's public relations official said. Pyongyang sent an Air Koryo plane to Incheon International Airport to pick up the delegation, Ma said.
• Kathi Zellweger: DPRK Trip Report, 7 TO 21 MARCH 2006
  This was the 50th trip of Kathi Zellweger, of Caritas Hong Kong, to the DPRK, and perhaps the last since Caritas Corea is taking over DPRK operations.
• Caritas continues its work in DPRK (North Korea)
  Vatican City, 8 November 2005 - Caritas Internationalis, a Confederation of 162 Catholic relief, development and social service agencies, has pledged at its Korea Country Group meeting in Seoul to continue its relief and development work in the DPRK. The first Caritas food aid shipment reached the shores of North Korea on 24 November 1995. Ten years later, Caritas is in the process of shifting its involvement from humanitarian aid to a more development-oriented support, or from a 'band aid' approach to strengthening local livelihood and capacity.
• Carirtas Coreana
  Caritas Coreana is a national committee of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Korea(CBCK) for coordinating the activities of the Catholic Church in the field of relief, welfare and development.
• UN Conditionally Approves Aid for Pyongyang
  SEOUL (Yonhap) _ The World Food Program's executive board has approved a new two-year program to provide food aid to children and young women in communist North Korea, the U.N. agency said in a statement released Friday. "The World Food Program's governing Executive Board today approved a two-year plan to build on the agency's ten-year record of humanitarian assistance to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) by tackling nutritional deficiencies and chronic hunger," said the statement released from Rome, referring to the North's official name, DPRK. Valued at $102 million, the new assistance program is mainly aimed at providing vitamin- and-mineral enriched foods to " young children and women of child-bearing age," the statement said. The agency, however, said it would have no choice but to withdraw the program unless the communist state agrees to allow it to monitor the distribution of its assistance.
• S. Korea to Ship 150,000 Tons of Fertilizer to NK
  The government has decided to send a total of 150,000 tons of fertilizer to North Korea from February to April, according to the Unification Ministry Wednesday. The first shipment will leave the South's port of Yosu next Tuesday headed for Nampo in the North, according to the ministry officials. ``We will finish the transportation by late April, so that the fertilizer can help this year's farming in the North,'' Ko Gyong-bin, director-general of the social and cultural exchanges bureau at the ministry, told a briefing. The fertilizer is a humanitarian gesture and the South did not attach any conditions to the aid, he said.

• $20 million is slated for North's children
  March 29, 2006 ? Seoul will give the World Health Organization just over $20 million for women and infant health programs in North Korea, the Unification Ministry said yesterday. Lee Jong-seok, the minister, signed an agreement with Lee Jong-wook, the director-general of the WHO in Seoul yesterday. The grant is a two-year one; this year, Seoul will contribute $10.68 million, half in cash and half in kind, with the balance to be sent in 2007. The ministry invoked human rights of infants, children and their mothers in explaining the reasons for the grants. An official there said the grants would also be used to build infrastructure to support public health programs. The money will be used to train medical workers, renovate hospitals and improve the management of Pyongyang's Health Ministry, the ministry said.
• NK Kids to get $20 Mil
  By Seo Dong-shin Staff Reporter The government will provide North Korea with some $20 million in the next two years through a specialized United Nations health agency to help improve the health conditions of babies and children in the communist country.
• India Donates Rice to DPRK
  The Indian government donated 2,000 tons of rice to the DPRK, the KCNA reported on February 7. A ceremony of conveying rice to the DPRK took place at Nampho Port on February 7. Present at the ceremony were Jo Si Bong, vice-minister of Food Procurement and Administration, officials concerned and N. T. Khankhup, Indian ambassador to the DPRK, and staff members of the embassy. The Indian government has donated to the DPRK various kinds of humanitarian aid materials including food and medicament on nine occasions since 1995.
• WFP in talks with N Korea on continuing food aid
  By Anna Fifield in Pyongyang Published: March 13 2006 10:46 | Last updated: March 13 2006 10:46 Senior officials from the World Food Programme will arrive in Pyongyang on Tuesday to begin what are likely to be complicated negotiations on the future of its relief activities in North Korea, as the irascible state imposes stringent new conditions on aid agencies.
  This week's talks come as non-governmental organisations embark on further sensitive discussions with Kim Jong-il's regime, which wants any remaining aid workers to be regrouped under a European Union umbrella by the end of this month
• South's fertilizer shipped to North
  March 01, 2006 ? A South Korean vessel carrying the first shipment of South Korea's fertilizer aid to North Korea left yesterday for Nampo port. The 3,900-ton "Pioneer Kona" left Yeosu port, 455 kilometers southwest of Seoul, shortly after 10 a.m., carrying 6,000 tons of fertilizer. The shipment is the first of 150,000 tons Seoul has agreed to provide to the impoverished North for its spring crop. The Pioneer Kona is expected to arrive at the North Korean port on Thursday, according to officials at Seoul's Unification Ministry. The shipment follows a request for aid by the North earlier in the month. It also asked for an additional 300,000 tons of fertilizer later in the year. The South Korean government has yet to decide whether it will provide the additional 300,000 tons, according to ministry officials.
• UN Conditionally Approves Aid for Pyongyang
  SEOUL (Yonhap) _ The World Food Program's executive board has approved a new two-year program to provide food aid to children and young women in communist North Korea, the U.N. agency said in a statement released Friday. "The World Food Program's governing Executive Board today approved a two-year plan to build on the agency's ten-year record of humanitarian assistance to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) by tackling nutritional deficiencies and chronic hunger," said the statement released from Rome, referring to the North's official name, DPRK. Valued at $102 million, the new assistance program is mainly aimed at providing vitamin- and-mineral enriched foods to " young children and women of child-bearing age," the statement said. The agency, however, said it would have no choice but to withdraw the program unless the communist state agrees to allow it to monitor the distribution of its assistance.
• S. Korea to Ship 150,000 Tons of Fertilizer to NK
  The government has decided to send a total of 150,000 tons of fertilizer to North Korea from February to April, according to the Unification Ministry Wednesday. The first shipment will leave the South's port of Yosu next Tuesday headed for Nampo in the North, according to the ministry officials. ``We will finish the transportation by late April, so that the fertilizer can help this year's farming in the North,'' Ko Gyong-bin, director-general of the social and cultural exchanges bureau at the ministry, told a briefing. The fertilizer is a humanitarian gesture and the South did not attach any conditions to the aid, he said.

• 'Effects of NK Economic Reform Hard to Detect'
  WASHINGTON (Yonhap) _ North Korea's economic reform steps have generated economic activities, but the degree of implementation and impact is not that visible, according to a U.N. humanitarian report. The country's weak managerial capacity is also limiting aid project implementation, the report said. The UNICEF Humanitarian Action Report 2006, dated Monday, asks the international community to donate $583.48 million to fund UNICEF's actions for the year, including $11.2 million for North Korea. Funding for North Korea is broken down into $7.3 million for health and nutrition, $3.2 million for water and environmental sanitation, and $700,000 for education. ``In the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), chronic food and energy shortages are continuing to deplete people's coping mechanisms,'' the report said.
• UNICEF Humanitarian Action Report 2006
• NK Awards Medal to US Aid Worker
  SEOUL (Yonhap) _ North Korea has for the first time conferred a medal to a U.S. citizen, a news report said Sunday. On Tuesday, Han Song-ryol, deputy chief of North Korea's mission to the United Nations, awarded a ``goodwill'' medal to the widow of Ellsworth Culver, co-founder and former president of Mercy Corps, an international aid agency, at a ceremony in Portland, said the Minjok Tongshin, a news agency based in Los Angeles. The posthumous medal was awarded on behalf of the Presidium of North Korea's Supreme People's Assembly. ``The deceased is one of pioneers who made efforts achieve a new development of North Korea-U.S. relations during his life,'' the news agency quoted Han as saying.
• N.Korea Gives Posthumous Medal to American
  N.Korea Gives Posthumous Medal to American Activist for Leading Aid Projects, News Report Say
  The Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea Jan 15, 2006 - North Korea has awarded a medal for the first time to an American the late leader of a U.S.-based aid group for his efforts to help the communist state fight hunger and poverty, a news report said. The North has posthumously awarded its friendship medal to Ellsworth Culver, co-founder of the international aid organization Mercy Corps, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported Sunday, citing Minjok Tongshin, a Los Angeles-based Korean community newspaper.
  Culver is the first U.S. citizen to receive a medal from North Korea, Yonhap said. The two countries, which fought in the 1950-53 Korean War, have been in a standoff since 2002 over Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions.
  North Korean U.N. diplomat Han Song-ryol delivered the medal to Culver's widow at a ceremony Tuesday in Portland, Ore., where the aid group is headquartered, Yonhap said. "The deceased is one of pioneers who made efforts achieve a new development of North Korea-U.S. relations during his life," Han was quoted as saying. Culver, who died in August at age 78, led the charity's efforts to provide the North with food and medical supplies. Through more than 20 visits to the communist state, he helped foster the agency's "extraordinary rapport with North Korean officialdom," the agency's Web site said.
• WFP Suspends Food Assistance to NK
  NEW YORK (Yonhap) _ The United Nations World Food Program (WFP), which was helping to feed a third of the 22 million people of North Korea as recently as August, has ended all feeding programs there at the request of the government, a WFP branch director was quoted as telling the New York Times Saturday.
• By Order of North Korea, U.N. Halts Food Assistance There
  By JAMES BROOKE Published: January 7, 2006 TOKYO, Jan. 6 - The United Nations World Food Program, which was helping to feed a third of the 22 million people of North Korea as recently as August, has ended all feeding programs there at the request of the government.
  "Operations are completely halted," Richard Ragan, an American who represents the agency in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, said Friday in a telephone interview. Noting that government pressure had already forced a cutback this fall, he said: "We were feeding 600,000 people in December. As of Jan. 1 we are feeding nobody."
  The agency has closed its five offices outside Pyongyang, closed its 19 food processing plants in the country and cut its foreign staff there nearly in half, to about 25, Mr. Ragan said from Beijing. In the last decade the agency has spent an estimated $1.7 billion to feed North Koreans. A major source of food for the nation's poor, the agency is believed to have helped cut malnutrition rates.
  "One of their key concerns was about how we monitored our program," Mr. Ragan said, noting that food program workers made 300 to 500 inspection visits each month. "The Chinese don't monitor at all, as far as I am aware," he said, while South Korea has announced that it plans to make 20 inspection visits this year. In addition to evicting the World Food Program's staff, the North has ordered the 12 European aid groups working in the country to leave by spring. Three left in recent days because of an expulsion order that was imposed last fall after the European Union proposed a United Nations resolution criticizing the North's human rights record. [Espionage] [Response]
• North's rice shipped to the South
  January 06, 2006 ? The first rice from a joint project in North Korea arrived at Gyeonggi provincial government offices yesterday following transport from Incheon port where it was unloaded last Tuesday. The first rice ever to come from the North was in 1984 as part of an aid shipment for flood damage. The 1 metric ton of rice was part of 14.8 metric tons harvested from a joint North-South model farm project in Ryongsong district in Pyongyang. For the project, Gyeonggi province provided rice seeds, agricultural machinery, and technical know-how while the North provided the farmland and labor. The joint venture took place after the Korean Council for Reconciliation and Cooperation, with members from both the North and the South, made a pact concerning agricultural technology sharing last April. It is the first time that the two countries have participated in a cooperative venture for harvesting rice.
  The rice is to be repackaged into 2 kilogram sacks and sent to organizations for the disabled, and national unification organizations and their affiliated groups. In addition, the rice is going to be made into rice cakes and kept for commemoration in the future.
  In a statement that seemed to downplay current disputes over rice imports, Kang Min-su, an official at the Korean Catholic Farmers' Association, said, "Amidst the problems we are having concerning import rice, we welcome the rice from North Korea because after all, we are one race." Mr. Kim continued, "I hope this joint venture helps North Korea with their food problem as well as be a small step towards reconciliation." [Joint Korean]
• Seoul Sends First Aid Shipment of Year to N. Korea
  INCHON (Yonhap) -- The first batch of South Korean aid for North Korea this year set sail here on Wednesday after a brief ceremony. The Korean Foundation for World Aid is sending 540 million won ($539,460) worth of powdered milk, baby food, running shoes and wheat flour on the cargo ship Tradefortune from a port in Inchon City, west of Seoul. About 40 officials and guests attended the ceremony, with a brief Christian service in which they prayed for reconciliation of the two Koreas and safe transportation of the aid. The aid is a part of cooperation in agriculture, public hygiene and children's nutrition that the foundation and the National Reconciliation Council of North Korea agreed to on Dec. 8.
• Seoul Gives 60,000 Tons of Coal Aid to NK
  By Seo Dong-shin Staff Reporter South Korea will finish the transportation of a total of 60,000 tons of coal aid to North Korea by the end of this month, a Unification Ministry official said Tuesday. The South has already transported some 10,000 tons of imported hard coal, which is processed and distributed in the North Korean border town of Kaesong to be used in the households, the official said.
• Seoul to Help N. Korean Infants
  SEOUL (Yonhap) _ The South Korean government has decided to provide $10 million to the World Health Organization (WHO) this year to help finance the organization's program to aid millions of infants and pregnant women in impoverished North Korea, a government official said Monday

• A U-turn on reforms could starve North Korea
  Stephan Haggard and Marcus Noland International Herald Tribune THURSDAY, DECEMBER 22, 2005
  Food and the future While the world focuses on North Korea's nuclear program and the stalled six-party talks, a second set of negotiations with profound implications for the Korean Peninsula are occurring beyond public view. The primary participants are the governments of North and South Korea, the United States and the World Food Program, the United Nations food aid agency. At stake is whether the North Korean regime will turn back the clock on economic reforms, strengthen political control over the population and torpedo an ongoing humanitarian aid effort.
  All interested governments should stand behind the integrity of the WFP process; in South Korea's case, this would imply channeling a greater share of food assistance through multilateral channels. A revival of the failed socialist model would not only mark a U-turn in North Korea's reforms, but would also set the stage for a recurrence of humanitarian problems in the future. (Stephan Haggard is a professor of international relations at the University of California, San Diego, where he directs the Korea-Pacific Program. Marcus Noland is a senior fellow at the Institute for International Economics, Washington) Food and the future [Economic reforms] [Aid weapon] [Victim]
• To Link or Not to Link: The Human Rights Question in North Korea
  By John Feffer Though it would be difficult to find anyone in the United States who would praise North Korea for its dismal human rights record, this consensus of opinion by no means extends to practical foreign policy. In other words, there is broad agreement on what is wrong in North Korea, from the political labor camps to the lack of basic freedoms of speech and assembly, but little agreement on what to do about it or who should be doing it. At the governmental level, policymakers are divided on whether to link the human rights issue to other pressing concerns such as the nuclear crisis or humanitarian aid. In Congress, an effort is under way to embed the human rights movement in a grand regime change·strategy targeting the world's remaining dictatorships, but financial considerations and traditional balance-of-power calculations may derail this initiative. In the world of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), an evangelical movement has clothed its primary concern for religious freedom in the garb of general human rights and has gained much political capital, thanks to vocal church support and a faith-based climate of opinion. But mainstream human rights organizations remain wary of the missionary zeal and hard-line strategies of these evangelicals. [Aid weapon] [Regime change]
• Christian Friends of Korea
  December 2005 Activity Report
  CFK Team Returns from December 2005 DPRK Visit The winter snow made its first appearance during our recent visit to North Korea from November 26 - December 3, beginning a cold and bleak season that will stretch from now until late March. In our travels to 7 tuberculosis treatment facilities, and 3 general hospitals that we are providing regular support to, we were able to understand more of what life is like for the people of North Korea during the cold months when visitors are rare.
• UN talks over N Korea food aid
  Mr Morris said the WFP wanted to continue working in the North The UN food agency and North Korea have ended two days of talks on a future aid programme for the country after it demanded an end to emergency food aid. James Morris, executive director of the World Food Programme (WFP), was negotiating over staff numbers and the monitoring of any future programme. The WFP has already scaled back its food aid programme in the North and will stop it at the end of the month. The North said in September it wanted development aid, not food hand-outs. Pyongyang says its harvests have improved, and it wants help with long-term development instead.
• WFP Chief, NK to Discuss Food Aid
  SEOUL (Yonhap) -- The head of the World Food Program (WFP) arrived in North Korea on Tuesday to discuss the agency's aid operation in the communist regime with local officials, the North's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said. WFP Executive Director James T. Morris was greeted by North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Choe Su-hon and the director of the world body's North Korea branch Richard Ragan at Pyongyang airport, according to the agency. Morris plans to meet top officials, including North Korea's number two leader Kim Yong-nam and Foreign Minister Paek Nam-sun, to consult on the organization's operations there.
• USAID Chief Says He Witnessed Mass Burial in NK
  WASHINGTON (Yonhap) -- A chief U.S. administrator on international aid, while criticizing red tape on U.S. provision of food assistance, said he witnessed a mass burial of North Koreans dead from hunger and knows what famine can do.
  We were in China [in 1998] , and we had telescopes, and they dumped 29 bodies in a big pit, and they covered over the bodies. It was a famine, and a lot of people refused to recognize it at the time," said Natsios. "They are terrible events, only comparable in my view to genocide."
  Speaking separately to Yonhap on Friday about North Korea, he reiterated the U.S. demand that the U.N. World Food Program (WFP) be allowed to continue its food distribution operation in the country, or else USAID would have to suspend its food aid to Pyongyang [Spin]
• U.S. Puts Off N.Korean Food Donation
  By JOE McDONALD, Associated Press Writer Sat Dec 3, 7:42 AM ET
  YILAN, China - The United States has put off buying 25,000 tons of food aid promised to North Korea this month, insisting on assurances the aid will be delivered by the World Food Program so it will not diverted to the military or ruling party. North Korea has told the U.N. agency to shut down its feeding program by the end of this year and switch to economic development assistance instead of humanitarian aid. The North says it can feed its people with its improved harvests and aid from neighboring China and South Korea. Washington, one of the North's biggest food donors, believes the impoverished nation still needs food aid, the U.S. State Department said in a written statement. But the department wants to ensure the donations are distributed by WFP. "We have not procured the 25,000 tons originally scheduled to have been shipped later this month due to uncertainties about whether the World Food Program emergency feeding operation to which it was to be delivered would still be in place to receive it and monitor its distribution," said the State Department statement, dated Thursday. [Diversion] [WFP] [Aid weapon]
• Aid Strengthens Kim's Regime
  by Andrei Lankov December 1st, 2005 Reprinted from The Asian Wall Street Journal
  Andrei Lankov, a North Korean studies specialist from the Australian National University, currently teaching at Kookmin University in Seoul, writes. "Stopping all aid could lead to renewed famine, especially in those areas of the country closed to foreigners. But excessive and unconditional aid is likely to halt all reforms, since the Pyongyang government would simply reverse to its old policies, using foreign aid to pay for the system's inherent inefficiencies." [Aid weapon]
• 'NK's Grain Output Largest in 10 Years'
  WASHINGTON (Yonhap) -- North Korea's estimated grain production for 2005-2006 is the highest in more than a decade at 3.64 million tons, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said in a report Monday. Despite the increase, the communist state's grain deficit remains quite large, with efforts to expand production hindered by factors including limited arable land and a dilapidated irrigation network, the report said. The USDA report derives its estimate from weather analyses, satellite imagery and data gathered on the ground. It has been released annually for the past four years. "The USDA estimates North Korean total grain production (including corn, milled rice, wheat and barley) at 3.64 million tons, up 150,000 tons or 4 percent from last year and the largest crop since 1994-1995," the report said. Corn production is expected to reach 1.8 million tons, up 4 percent from last year. 11-29-2005 18:35

• 'N.K. still telling foreign aid agencies to pack up'
  With a bumper harvest almost certain this year, North Korea is sticking to its earlier request for foreign aid agencies to stop emergency humanitarian deliveries and leave the country by the end of the year, U.N. officials said yesterday.
  The World Food Program and other international aid groups are negotiating with the communist state over the decree, but even if foreign aid workers have to withdraw from the country, those who have uncompleted projects at hand would be allowed to stay until February or March next year, the officials said. "As far as UNICEF is concerned, North Korea made it clear that it wants UNICEF to continue its work in the country," Anupama Rao Singh, regional director of UNICEF East Asia and Pacific Office said in an interview with The Korea Herald yesterday.
  Singh was in Seoul after a four-day trip to North Korea, accompanied by Pierrette Vu Thi, a UNICEF representative in Pyongyang.
  "The North Korean officials told us too that aid agencies should shift the humanitarian work to development assistance." However, since UNICEF has worked in a way that has helped build the country's capacity, the North Korean officials are very supportive of its operations," Singh said.
  Vu Thi, who is stationed in Pyongyang, agreed that this year's crops are clearly looking very promising, but she expressed concerns over North Korea's move to refuse food aid.
  "Sustainability is an issue here. The situation there is still fragile. The agricultural industry is prone to natural disasters and this year's good harvest does not guarantee (future luck)." Singh noted that although the situation in North Korea, particularly the malnutrition rate of children, has improved remarkably over the past six years - from around 60 percent in 1998 down to 35 percent in 2004, it is still vulnerable and precarious.
• Washington Threatens to Cut NK Food Aid
  By Reuben Staines Staff Reporter The United States is threatening to cut off its food aid to North Korea if the communist country sticks to a plan to force out U.N. food distribution agency monitors by the end of the year. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) said on Wednesday it will be obliged to halt food shipments if World Food Program (WFP) officials are made to leave the country. Washington has pledged an average of 50,000 tons of food per year to North Korea via the World Food Program (WFP) over the past three years. About half of this year's pledge has so far been delivered. In August, Pyongyang requested the WFP withdraw its monitoring officials by the end of this year, saying that the nation no longer needed direct assistance and preferred to receive development aid. [Aid weapon]

• US politician praises North Korea
  Mr Richardson was allowed to tour Yongbyon nuclear plant North Korea is committed to dismantling its nuclear weapons programme, an unofficial US envoy has said, after a visit to the capital Pyongyang. Bill Richardson said he was "very pleased" with North Korea's willingness to make progress in six-nation talks. Pyongyang has already pledged to abandon its nuclear weapons in an earlier round of the talks. Mr Richardson, former US ambassador at the UN, said North Korea now wanted to focus on a civilian nuclear programme. "Their view is that what needs to be addressed is the light water reactor," he said.
  Separately, Mr Richardson said North Korea had told him UN food aid workers will be allowed to remain in the country, reversing an earlier threat to kick them out.
• President of IFRCRCS Arrives Here
  Pyongyang, October22(KCNA)--Juan Manuel Suarez del Toro, president of the International Federation of Red Crescent Societies, and his party arrived here on Saturday. They were greeted at the airport by Paek Yong Ho, vice-chairman of the Central Committee of the DPRK Red Cross Society, and the head of the aid delegation of the federation.
• North Korea's problem with food
  By Sarah Buckley BBC News
  Mountainous North Korea is difficult to farm North Korea struggles to feed itself due to a mixture of geography and economic policy. Photographs which depict a lush, rural environment are misleading. The country needs an average of 1m metric tonnes in food aid a year. "North Korea is not an agrarian country," said Kathi Zelleweger, a frequent visitor to the country with aid organisation Caritas. It is mostly rugged mountain terrain, and only about 18% is arable. It is dependent on fertilizer and machinery to make that land productive, both of which are expensive. AVERAGE DAILY INTAKE An average urban dweller gets 250g cereal from government In addition, can afford approx 30g maize And may forage for mushrooms, edible grasses, acorns etc Recommended amount is 550-590g of blend of foods, equivalent to 2,100kcal Politics compounds topography. Agriculture in North Korea was collectivised in the 1950s, in line with its Stalinist philosophy of self-reliance. This means farmers have a low incentive to work hard, said Paul French, a writer on North Korea.
• N Korea hungry to reassert control over food
  By Anna Fifield Published Financial Times: October 21 2005 03:00 | Last updated: October 21 2005 03:00
  The market stalls in Pyongyang, where rice and maize have been sold at prices allowed to fluctuate according to supply and demand, are now empty and the stools that sellers occupied are upturned, according to foreign residents in the North Korean capital. With a bumper harvest and an influx of South Korean rice coinciding with progress in nuclear disarmament negotiations, Kim Jong-il's regime appears to be reasserting both its domestic and international control by taking food back into its jurisdiction. The regime is reinstituting parts of its public distribution system of rations and has ordered aid agencies involved in humanitarian rather than development work to leave the country as soon as next month. The agencies feed about 6.5m people - a third of North Korea's population. "They don't want to show any weakness," says Bradley Martin, author of a recent book, Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader. "Face is so important to them and to be thought of as beggars would be almost intolerable for North Korea." With a fifth round of the six-party talks on the North's nuclear weapons programme approaching next month, one aid worker says: "What kind of negotiating tactic are they going to use when they have to admit they can't even feed themselves?" Before the mid-1990s famine that led to the starvation of as many as 2m people, Pyongyang used to supply its citizens with 700g-900g of food a day. That amount dwindled to as little as 128g in 1997 and is now in the 200g-300g range. Much of the shortfall has been made up by aid agencies, which brought not only maize and rice into the country but people to distribute and monitor it as well. Chung Hyung-keun, a South Korean lawmaker who sits on the national assembly's intelligence committee, says this was a source of grave concern for the regime, which relies on a knowledge vacuum to keep the populace under control and fend off foreign interference. There are only 200 non-Koreans in a country of 22m. "They don't want foreigners, especially NGOs, to see how miserable North Koreans are," Mr Chung says. North Korea's economic reforms of 2002 permitted staples previously distributed through the Public Distribution System to be sold in markets and increased wages to enable people to pay for them. But this led to exponential inflation that put basic goods out of the reach of many ordinary North Koreans and sparked a level of social inequality that could cause unrest. Observers say the recent reversal is part of Pyongyang's wider effort to reassert control, which started with its sudden ban on mobile phones last year and the reimposition of a ban on Sunday driving. "If you want to draw a conclusion [from this], it might be that the markets work too well," said a foreign resident in Pyongyang. "What they don't understand is when you reform economically you can't do it half way." Journalists visiting Pyongyang last week were not permitted to go to any markets to verify the reports that staples had been removed. However, Cha Sung-il, a 45-year-old manager for the Pyongyang Metro, said the amount of rice he had been receiving had risen recently. "We receive about 45kg a month for the family," Mr Cha said. By many accounts, including North Korea's own, food production has improved markedly. The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation estimates that cereal production will increase by 400,000 tonnes to 3.9m tonnes this year - the biggest harvest since 1995. South Korea's bilateral assistance has also contributed to the decision to roll back some of the changes to food distribution, analysts say. South Korea pledged this year to provide the North with 500,000 tonnes of rice. As one diplomat who monitors North Korea puts it: "They are getting 500,000 tonnes of strings-free rice from South Korea, which is saying 'these are our siblings, we have to make allowances'. North Korea loves that." But this is not to say the food crisis is over. North Korea still faces a shortfall of about 900,000 tonnes this year, and 37 per cent of children and a third of mothers still suffer from chronic malnutrition. Richard Ragan, head of the World Food Programme's North Korean operations, fears a sharp decline in living conditions if its 19 factories have to start closing next month. "A lot of progress has been made over the last 10 years but it could easily fall apart," Mr Ragan said. [Economic reforms]
• Why Seoul Helps the North
  By Chung-in Moon October 18th, 2005 Chung-in Moon, Professor of political science at Yonsei University in Seoul, writes, "Perhaps the most important thing to keep in mind is that food aid does not exist within a vacuum. It is but one part of a complex and trying effort by the South Korean government to improve inter-Korean relations, reduce military tension and help its North Korean brethren." [SK aid]
• Foundation feeds 5,000 from bakery in the North
  October 18, 2005 ? PYONGYANG ? A bread factory established in North Korea by the South's Korea Welfare Foundation has been providing 5,000 buns with red bean stuffing daily to children at 10 kindergartens and orphanages near the famine- stricken country's capital Pyongyang. The buns are named "Unification Bread." "The Unification Bread Factory" has been producing bread eight hours a day. About 20 North Korean workers operate the facility. The plant's equipment was donated by South Korean food maker, Samlip Corporation, and ingredients given by sponsors of the foundation. According to the foundation, children between ages four and eight, mostly orphans, have been fed the bread for the past five months. "Before we provided the bread, we visited the Pyongyang Nursery Center, where children were eating powdered milk," Lee Kwang-mun, senior director with the Korea Welfare Foundation, said. "Now, we are making bread with the same ingredients that are used in the South. With our production, about 5,000 children can have a good meal every day." Since 2001, the Korea Welfare Foundation has supported 14 nurseries and a hospital in the North, in addition to the operation of the bakery. by Kim Ho-jung, Ser Myo-ja
• NK Food Shortage Remains Serious: UN
  GENEVA (Yonhap) -- North Korea is likely to reap its best harvest in a decade this year, but food remains out of reach for a large portion of its 23 million people, a United Nations food agency said on Thursday. The communist state's confidence about food seems to be growing, at least outwardly. Last month, Pyongyang called for the U.N. to replace the current emergency aid with development assistance on a long-term basis by the year's end, citing its better food capability. North Korean leader Kim Jong-il told South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong-young that his country would be able to solve its chronic food shortages if the South lends help for just one or two more years, according to Chung, who met Kim in Pyongyang in June. The World Food Program also reported that the North was beginning to reintroduce a food rationing system that was phased out following its worst famines in the mid-1990s.
• Congress Rejects Food Aid for Local Development
  October 10, 2005 International Relations Center www.irc-online.org
  Both House and Senate leaders recently rejected an administration-backed recommendation by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to allot $300 million of its food aid budget to purchase food grown by local or regional producers. Once again congressional members bowed to special interests, including agroexporters, shipping firms, and nonprofits that deliver U.S. food aid.
• U.N.: Food Problems Remain in N. Korea
  By FRANCES D'EMILIO The Associated Press Thursday, October 13, 2005; 2:57 PM
  ROME -- Cereal production in North Korea this year is expected to be the highest in a decade, but chronic food insecurity will likely remain widespread, a U.N. food agency said Thursday. North Korea has struggled to feed its people since the mid-1990s, after natural disasters and mismanagement caused its economy to collapse. Famine has killed an estimated 2 million people.
  Last month, North Korea asked international aid groups to stop sending emergency humanitarian assistance by year's end. Despite the optimistic harvest forecast, "a large proportion of the population will remain food insecure," the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said in a report. The Rome-based agency said it and the World Food Program, a U.N. humanitarian aid organization, had conducted annual crop and food supply surveys in North Korea since 1995, but that this year, the government did not request such a mission. Interpreting rainfall information, satellite imagery and other input, the Food and Agriculture Organization said that this year, the harvest is expected to be favorable and that cereal production would be "the largest crop since 1995."
• N. Korea Said Increases Food Distribution
  The Associated Press Saturday, October 8, 2005; 10:12 AM SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea is stepping up efforts to resume full-scale distribution of food across the country, a sign the situation in the communist nation is improving, a U.N. relief agency said. The World Food Program, which has been feeding an average of 6.5 million North Koreans during the last several years, said new ration cards have been issued to people and the government has banned cereal sales at markets as it steps up its distribution program.
  "Government plans to revive the public distribution system are becoming more apparent, although steps in this direction do not seem to be happening uniformly across the country," Richard Ragan, the WFP's country director, said in a Friday-dated report on the agency's Web site. {PDS}
• 40,000 North Korean Children Could Die From Malnutrition: UNICEF
  SEOUL (Yonhap) -- Malnutrition rates among North Korean children have decreased in recent years, but still as many as 40,000 could die from a poor diet and related illnesses, a U.N. agency warned on Monday. Taufique Mujtaba, program coordinator of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), said at a symposium in Seoul that new medical facilities are necessary to protect the children from malnutrition-related illnesses. Diarrhea and respiratory infections that come with malnutrition are the main causes of death for North Korean children, Mujtaba said.
• Pyongyang Returns to Food Rationing: WFP
  By Reuben Staines Staff Reporter North Korea has halted sales of grains in cooperative markets and is returning to a food rationing system, the U.N.'s World Food Program (WFP) has confirmed. In a report released Saturday by the aid agency's office in Pyongyang, the WFP said the grain sales have stopped completely in the capital and some surrounding rural areas.
• North Korea plays politics with food aid
  By Jeffrey Robertson 2 North Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Choe Su-hon, in a veiled reference to the US Special Envoy on Human Rights in North Korea, recently accused the United States of politicizing food aid. Yet, speaking with irony so thick it could be sliced, he demonstrated North Korea's complete mastery of food-aid politics [Aid weapon] [Media]
• North Korea Says Bumper Crop Justifies Limits on Aid
  By JAMES BROOKE Published: October 6, 2005 ONJUNG-RI, North Korea, Sept. 29 - Against a yellow sea of ripening rice, red flags flapped smartly in the autumn breeze on a recent day, apparently signaling that collective farm work brigades were harvesting a bumper crop in this fertile corner of North Korea.
  "All people in the D.P.R.K. are now out to give helping hands to the farmers in harvesting," the Korean Central News Agency said of the fall harvest campaigns around this nation, formally called the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. After a decade of reliance on food aid, Kim Jong Il, the North Korean leader, had declared 2005 to be "The Year of Agriculture." But the trundling tractors, hard-working peasants and marching soldiers with harvest baskets on their backs could also have been staged to impress two busloads of journalists who sped along a highway, heading toward South Korea. Separated by a six-foot-high fence and blanket restrictions against interviews with farmers, the visitors had no way of getting a closer view of food supplies in this secretive society.
• Hungry for Human Rights
  Stephan Haggard, University of California, San Diego Marcus Noland, Institute for International Economics
  The Washington Post September 28, 2005
  The recent diplomatic attention to North Korea's nuclear ambitions should not distract us from a second, equally grim, problem posed by that country: its chronic food emergency.
  In the 1990s, as many as 1 million North Koreans died in one of the worst famines of the century. This catastrophe would be the equivalent of roughly 15 million dead in the United States. Now, once again, North Korea's citizens are facing man-made food shortages that pose difficult challenges to other nations [Aid weapon]
• S. Korea to Continue Food Aid to N. Korea
  By BO-MI LIM The Associated Press Thursday, September 29, 2005; 3:57 PM
  SEOUL, South Korea -- South Korea will keep sending food aid to the rival North despite the communist regime's demand that international donors halt emergency food shipments and provide development aid instead, an official said Thursday. North Korea, with 22 million people, has relied on foreign assistance since natural disasters and mismanagement caused its economy to collapse in the mid-1990s.
• North Korea to Resume Food Rationing
  The Associated Press Sunday, October 2, 2005; 12:25 PM
  SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea plans to resume full-scale food rationing across the impoverished communist country after ending grain sales, a U.N. relief agency said. "As of Oct. 1, reports are that cereal sales in the markets will cease and public distribution centers will take over countrywide distribution," the World Food Program said in a Friday-dated report posted on its Web site.
  North Korea significantly scaled back its food- rationing system in July 2002 while introducing an economic reform program that increased wages. The reform measures failed, however, as inflation soared amid shortages of food and other goods. [Economic reform]
• Harvest Brisk in DPRK
  Pyongyang, September 30 (KCNA) --All people in the DPRK are now out to give helping hands to the farmers in harvesting. Special trains are in service to thousands of officials, workers and members of the neighborhood units in Pyongyang going everyday to the farms in North Hwanghae Province and on the outskirts of the capital city to help the farmers there in harvesting and threshing. The daily number of them averages at least 1.17 million. The rice and maize harvesting quotas have been carried out at 12.9 and 52.4 percent respectively, taking the country as a whole.

• OCHA Bulletin August September 2005
• North asks groups to leave and change aid focus
  September 26, 2005 ? North Korea has asked international relief agencies to stop their aid operations in the famine-stricken communist country, Radio Free Asia reported, quoting a handful of European non-governmental groups. The non-profit broadcaster, which is funded by the U.S. government, said Friday that Choe Su- hon, deputy foreign minister of North Korea, told United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Thursday that all international agencies should cease operations inside the country by the end of this year. Relief groups in Pyongyang confirmed they have received similar requests from the North Korean government. Ann O'Mahony, spokeswoman for the Irish non- governmental group Concern, told Radio Free Asia that all Concern staff were told to leave the country by the end of this year. The Irish organization has been working in the North to improve the country's food production. The report said North Korean officials have told the agency it is time to stop humanitarian aid and to begin development assistance projects.
• NK's Pullout Request Baffles NGOs
  SEOUL (Yonhap) _ Officials working for non-governmental organizations (NGOs) operating in North Korea are bewildered by the nation's official request for them to leave by the end of this year, Radio Free Asia reported on Sunday. [Media]
• North Korea Seeks Less Dependence on Aid
  By BO-MI LIM The Associated Press Sunday, September 25, 2005; 3:06 AM
  SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea's demand that food aid be terminated and changed into development assistance underlines the regime's desire for a long-term strategy for feeding its people and becoming less dependent on foreign help, experts on the country say. The North, emerging from a famine that killed 2 million people by some estimates, announced Thursday it wanted all emergency humanitarian assistance from international organizations to stop by the end of the year, in part because of what it called political interference from the United States.
  In line with the North's request, the United Nations' World Food Program, which provides food assistance to about 6.5 million North Koreans, said earlier it would end a decade of emergency food shipments by January and focus on development projects. "North Korea has survived a life-and-death situation where people starved to death and there is now some stability, albeit at a minimum level," said Paik Hak-soon of the Sejong Institute in Seoul. "They now want a long-term survival strategy."
• Current Rice Aid Distribution to NK Misguided: Lawmaker
  By Seo Dong-shin Staff Reporter An opposition lawmaker Thursday criticized the distribution of South Korea's rice aid to North Korea, claiming that more of it was funneled to Pyongyang, a relatively well-fed capital city in the hunger-stricken nation. Of 800,000 tons of rice aid given by the South in 2003 and 2004, for example, 18.83 percent went to Pyongyang, which takes up only 13.7 percent of the North's population of some 22.4 million. Rep. Chung Moon-hun of the largest opposition Grand National Party (GNP) and his aides produced the results of an analysis based on the data of rice aid distribution by region and population.
  Critics in the South have already said that the South has to strengthen its monitoring system of rice aid to prevent it from feeding the North's strong military. [Diversion] [Aid weapon]
• Discussion of "Food Aid to North Korea or How to Ride a Trojan Horse to Death"
  September 20th, 2005
  1 Comments by Stephan Haggard and Marcus Noland
  2. Response by Ruediger Frank [Aid weapon]
• Social Workers to Help North Korean Children
  He said that social workers will also discuss forming an international children's organization to put pressure on North Korea to address poverty and human rights abuses of children there.
  Gary Bailey, vice president of the International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW) and the chairperson of the National Social Work Public Education Campaign in the United States, also echoed the importance of the project. [Victim]
• North Korea Halts U.N. Aid
  .By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: September 19, 2005 BEIJING, Sept. 18 (AP) - The United Nations will end a decade of emergency food shipments to North Korea by January at the request of its government, which says it has enough food coming from other sources, Richard Ragan, chief of the World Food Program's office in Pyongyang, the North Korea capital, said Sunday. He said in a telephone interview that if donors supported the shift, the money would be used instead for development projects in North Korea. North Korea has made requests to halt emergency food aid in the past. Mr. Ragan said officials there told him they believed they would be able to meet their food needs with aid from South Korea and increased trade with China.
• OCHA Bulletin June July 2005
• Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) opens new Pyongyang restaurant
  In June, ADRA opened a European style Café in the centre of Pyongyang. This economic development project is linked to ADRA's own bakery and produces around 5 MT of bread rolls and high calorie biscuits each day for two school feeding projects in conjunction with WFP and German Agro Action (GAA)....
  In collaboration with the Peoples Services committee, ADRA found a suitable shop location in February 2004; a former fish shop close to the Koryo Hotel.....
  Eleven staff members have been recruited and trained in Management, Marketing, Business Planning, Customer Service and western cooking styles [Economic reform]
• Rason Hospital Opens
  Pyongyang, August 5 (KCNA) -- The Rason International Catholic Hospital has been built in Rason, an economic and trade zone of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. It is a general medical service center donated by the International Cooperation of Catholic Medical Service (ICCMS) from the humanitarian purpose of helping promote the health of citizens. The hospital, with an area of 25,000 square meters and a total floor space of 8,000 square meters, is situated on a scenic beach in Anju- dong of the city. It, equipped with modern facilities for diagnosis, operation and first aid, has surgical, medical, pediatric and other departments and a sick ward. The ICCMS has also rendered a large quantity of medicines to the hospital. A monument was erected in the front yard of the hospital to convey the donation of the medical service center by the ICCMS. The opening ceremony took place on August 5. Participating in the ceremony were Chairman of the DPRK Committee for the Promotion of External Economic Cooperation Paek Hyon Bong, Vice- Minister of Public Health Choe Chang Sik, officials concerned and working people in Rason. On hand were Dr. Wolf Werner Johann, president of the ICCMS, and its members. The ceremony was addressed by Chairman of the City People's Committee Kim Su Yol. Congratulatory speeches were made by Paek Hyon Bong and Wolf Werner Johann. After the ceremony, the participants went round the hospital.
• DPRK TRIP REPORT 23 JULY TO 13 AUGUST 2005
  Kathi Zellweger, Caritas Hong Kong.
• Food Aid to North Korea or How to Ride a Trojan Horse to Death
  By Ruediger Frank September 13th, 2005
  Ruediger Frank, a Distinguished Visiting Professor at Korea University, Seoul, writes: "And so, it comes as no surprise to read in the Chosun Ilbo ...that the World Food Program was asked to shut down its Pyongyang office...We know what happens next. The North Koreans will be accused of not being grateful, the South Koreans will be told that it is their fault, the already not-so united front of the five nations at the Six Party Talks will be further weakened, and the North Korean leadership will open a bottle of Champaign."
  One would think that after the last decade of intensive contacts, most people dealing with North Korean officials have finally understood that these men and women are neither maniac nor irrational, but rather highly professional and well motivated. Yet to not everyone is ready to treat them as such.
  Food aid is one sad example. Why would any state-educated North Korean, who after decades of anti-capitalist training is constantly on alert, seriously believe that countries which make their distaste for the regime and its leaders more than clear almost on a daily basis are ready to provide any kind of assistance without strings attached - even if they actually were? After all, this technique is at least as old and as well publicized as Greek mythology and the Trojan Horse. Consequentially, a deep sense of suspicion on the North Korean side has to be expected and can indeed be observed.
• Hunger and Human Rights: The Politics of Famine in North Korea
  Stephan Haggard and Marcus Noland U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea
  The U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea is an independent, nongovernmental organization based in Washington, D.C. Created in 2001, the Committee was established to conduct independent research on human rights abuses in North Korea, and to disseminate its findings. It is not affiliated with the U.S. government. [media] [Diversion] [aid weapon]
• Refutation (Clarification) of Material Press Release
  (South Korean Ministry of Unification) Title: - Regarding Press Release indicating South Korea is unconditionally providing food support without distribution transparency. Department: Public Relations Policy Support Contact No. (02) 3703-2305 Attachment File: Press Release.hwp 2005 September 2nd (Friday) Regarding Press Release indicating South Korea is unconditionally providing food support without distribution transparency. South Korea supported North Korea with 150,000 tons of rice in 1995. Due to continued suffering of North Korean citizens from the famine since then, South Korea has continued its humanitarian efforts. South Korea considers the fair distribution of food to needy North Korean citizens to be the most important goal. Until now, the North and South Korean have continuously engaged in discussions to increase the transparency of food distribution. In order to ensure the fair distribution of food, the distribution site has been inspected and documented in the North-South Food Loan Agreement. South Korea has visited the distribution site and is confirming distribution status. South Korea has consistently stressed that the equitable distribution of food must be confirmed in order for food support to continue. North Korea has cooperated and agreed in this regard. This year, the number of distribution sites being inspected and the number of inspections have increased in comparison to last year. As a result, there is better distribution transparency. [Diversion]
• Response to MoU
  Haggard and Noland

• WFP aid to the North in danger of collapse
  August 03, 2005 ? The World Food Program said yesterday in an emergency report that without new aid from the international community, the number of North Korean residents receiving food assistance will fall from 4.6 million to 1.9 million in the second half of the year. Primary beneficiaries of the WFP include the elderly, pregnant and nursing women, and children in nurseries and kindergartens. The UN organization noted that by using its Immediate Response Account, WFP would be able to increase cereal rationing to 4.6 million people in August and September. However, without new contributions 2.7 million will no longer receive rations from October. It added that cooking oil supplies have already been cut off to beneficiaries The World Food Program spent $121 million on supplying food aid to North Korea last year.
• Red Cross to Give Medical Aid to N. Korea
  A delegation of South Korean Red Cross embarks on its sevenday visit to North Korea today to deliver medicine and medial equipment worth 3 billion won ($3 million) to the North.

• Rice shipments to North get underway by two routes
  July 27, 2005 ? The Ministry of Unification yesterday started shipping some of the 500,000 tons of rice that the South Korean government had promised to North Korea earlier this month. On the road that runs alongside the Gyeongui railway line, 60 trucks crossed the military demarcation line to deliver 1,500 tons of rice to Kaesong, while in the Donghae coast region, 40 trucks brought 1,000 tons to a bottled water factory at Mount Kumgang.
• Paek Nam Sun Receives Credentials from UN Resident Coordinator
  Pyongyang, July 14 (KCNA) -- Foreign Minister Paek Nam Sun received credentials from UN Resident Coordinator in Pyongyang Timo Pakkala Thursday.
• Seoul to Send Supplies for NK Flood Victims
  By Lee Jin-woo Staff Reporter South Korea's Red Cross will send emergency supplies to North Korea this week to help victims of flash flooding that claimed 88 lives and left thousands homeless late last month. ``The relief supplies will be enough for about 3,000 families and mostly focus on clothes and daily necessities,'' a Red Cross official said, adding that the aid agency will coordinate the delivery with its North Korean counterpart.
• Trucks Begin Fertilizer Shipments to NK
  By Reuben Staines Staff Reporter South Korea began trucking 20,000 tons of fertilizer to North Korea over the weekend as part farming aid to help ease a worsening food shortage, the Unification Ministry said. A convoy of trucks headed across the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone to the North Korean border town of Kaesong carrying the initial 2,000-ton load of fertilizer on Saturday.
• Seoul to Support N. Korean Babies
  By Kim Jae-kyoung Staff Reporter The South Korean government will increase aid to the North next year for a new project that supports North Korean babies and pregnant women, the Ministry of Planning and Budget said Tuesday. According to the 2006 budget proposal submitted to the ministry, 56 ministries and central administrative bodies have requested a total of 203.5 trillion won for next year's budget, a rise of 4.4 percent from a year before
• DPRK Hit by Rainstorm
  Pyongyang, July 1 (KCNA) -- Different areas of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea were hit by a strong wind and disastrous rainstorm. It rained heavily in Pyongyang, North and South Phyongan, North and South Hwanghae and South Hamgyong Provinces between 15:00 on June 30 and 06:00 on July 1.
  The torrential rain coupled with a strong wind (more than 10 meters per second) has brought a severe damage to various economic sectors and people. The damage was serious as there was a heavy rain at night. Officials of national and local institutions and people in the afflicted areas are now turning out in efforts to recover from the damage and investigate its correct amount.
• WHO Seeking to Improve Quality of NK Medical Faculty
  SEOUL (Yonhap) _ The World Health Organization plans to join forces with the South Korean government in sharpening the knowledge and skills of North Korea's collective medical faculty, senior officials of the U.N. body said Thursday. The WHO has donated medicine and medical equipment to raise the level of the North's health service and ``such efforts should be continued, but now in tandem with training programs,'' Eigil Sorensen, the WHO's representative in the North, told a press conference. Sorensen stressed that North Korean doctors and health workers are dedicated, but the country's isolation from the outside world, together with chronic food shortages and sub-grade pharmaceutical supplies, puts limits on the services they can provide patients. [Sanctions]

• Rainy Season Begins in DPRK
  Pyongyang, June 28 (KCNA) -- The rainy season has set in in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea from June 26 afternoon. Jong Ryong U, vice chief of the National Meteorological Institute under the Hydro-Meteorological Service, told KCNA that the year's rainy season has begun more than one week earlier than the normal year. He went on to say: The feature of this rainy weather, which is likely to last for two months, is conspicuous from the beginning. It had been difficult to distinguish the rainy season from dry season in recent years. From last year the start and end of the rainy season have become obvious again. It is expected that there would be a heavy fall of rain coupled with strong wind and flood during the current rainy season. This rainy weather will seriously affect the yield of first crops such as wheat and barley, the growth of which has been delayed owing to unfavorable climate, he added.
• . North to cut food ration, agency says
  June 27, 2005 ? In an emergency report on the food crisis in North Korea, the World Food Program says the regime is expected to cut its daily food ration for individuals from an already substandard 250 grams of rice and corn to 200 grams. The ration was cut from 300 grams to 250 ? considered half of what is required for basic sustenance ? in January. The United Nations relief agency said in its report Friday that many counties have confirmed that the reduction to 200 grams will go into effect at the beginning of July.
• S. Korea to Send More Fertilizer to North
  Seoul Agrees on Additional Fertilizer for NK South Korea agreed on Sunday to the North's request for 150,000 tons of additional fertilizer aid, Unification Ministry officials said. The transportation begins today with the shipment of 5,000 tons of fertilizer from Yosu, South Cholla Province, to Nampo, a west coast port in North Korea.
• OCHA Bulletin April May 2005
  The latest news from the UN agencies (WFP, WHO, etc) in DPRK
• N. Korea Seeks Aid From Seoul
  By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter North Korea has ``no reason to hold even a single nuclear bomb'' if the United States treats it in a friendly manner, the North's chief delegate to the 15th round of inter-Korean ministerial talks said Wednesday. North Korea also asked for additional food assistance on a humanitarian basis while expressing gratitude for the earlier shipments of rice and fertilizer aid.
• Foreign Assistance to North Korea
  By Mark Manyin June 16th, 2005
  Mark Manyin, Specialist in Asian Affairs at the Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division of the Congressional Research Service, wrote: "Congress and the Administration have a variety of options for future assistance to North Korea. Given the suspension of the KEDO project, the immediate decisions will revolve around food aid, particularly given increased demand for food assistance from other areas of the world. Additionally, if talks with North Korea over its nuclear program begin and score a breakthrough, there will likely be consideration of a broader economic assistance package."
• Report on U.S. Assistance Provided Inside North Korea"
  USAID Report
  May 26th, 2005
  US AID, in this report to Congress required by the North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004, discusses US aid to the DPRK though the World Food Program. It also discusses aid given in response to the April 2004 Ryongchon blast and the April 2005 Bird Flu Outbreak.
• North Korea -- U.S. Humanitarian Assistance
  Press Statement Adam Ereli, Deputy Spokesman Washington, DC June 22, 2005
  The United States will donate agricultural commodities through the World Food Program and separately is prepared to support health and food security programs for the people of North Korea. Our objective is to help relieve the suffering of the North Korean people, despite our concerns about the North Korean government's policies.
• PL480 Food Aid: We Can Do Better
  by Christopher B. Barrett and Daniel G. Maxwell Fifty years ago, President Eisenhower signed the Agricultural Trade Development and Assistance Act of 1954 into law as US Public Law 480, commonly known as PL480. Global food aid programs, the largest of which is PL480, have brought together governments, businesses, multilateral institutions such as the World Food Programme (WFP), and American private voluntary organizations (PVOs) in a valuable public-private partnership intended to reduce hunger and suffering around the world. Over the past half century, PL480 programs alone have contributed more than 340 million metric tons of food aid to save and improve the lives of hundreds of millions of poor and hungry people around the world.
  Since government food stockpiles are largely a thing of the past, most US food aid is now purchased through government procurement systems. Registered vendors earn a slight premium above prevailing market prices. However, at an annual value of about $2 billion, US food aid programs are too small to have any major effect on the general prices America's farmers receive in an economy where annual food expenditures top $900 billion.
• N.Korea Wants More Fertilizer
  By Reuben Staines Staff Reporter North Korea has asked the South for an additional 150,000 tons of fertilizer aid, the government confirmed Monday, one day ahead of a new round of inter-Korean ministers' talks. Seoul officials said the North's Red Cross requested the fertilizer aid, worth around 68 billion won, in a telephone message to its South Korean counterpart on Saturday

• NK Ships Arrive for Fertilizer Pickup
  By Reuben Staines Staff Reporter When the North Korean freighter ``Paik Du San'' chugged into Ulsan port on Sunday, it marked the first time since 1984 for a Northern vessel to make a call at a South Korean harbor. Twenty-one years ago, the port call was for Pyongyang to deliver supplies to Seoul following a massive typhoon. This time, the communist North will be the beneficiary of 200,000 tons of South Korean fertilizer to help avert a looming food shortage.
• US Denies Halting Food Aid to NK
  By Reuben Staines Staff Reporter The United States has denied a report that it has halted food aid to North Korea amid a deepening standoff over the impoverished communist country's nuclear weapons programs. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said a Wall Street Journal article claiming Washington had stopped its food donations to the North is incorrect. ``We've completed last year's shipments of 50,000 tons and we're considering what we might want to do this year,'' he told reporters at a regular briefing in Washington on Friday.
• North's ships to dock in South tomorrow
  May 21, 2005 ? For the first time in 21 years, North Korean cargo ships are scheduled to enter South Korean ports tomorrow. The Unification Ministry said yesterday that the vessels will pick up fertilizer aid. Three North Korean boats will cross the inter- Korean maritime border today and enter Ulsan, Gunsan and Yeosu tomorrow to load the shipments. They will depart for North Korea's Nampo and Wonsan on Wednesday and Thursday, the ministry said. In 1984, North Korea sent relief aid including rice, cement and medicines to the South, which had suffered flood damage, via sea. The Unification Ministry said the first shipment of fertilizer aid, 10,000 tons, will be sent overland in 50 trucks from Yeosu to Kaesong. At this week's inter-Korean talks, Seoul agreed to provide 200,000 tons of fertilizer aid to Pyongyang. [NK aid]
• N Korea 'in urgent need of food'
  The North is expected to call for more fertiliser North Korea is in urgent need of more food aid, the UN has warned. The head of the World Food Programme's North Korea mission told the BBC that without new contributions famine-like conditions would be likely to reappear.
• NK Could Face Worst Food Shortage: Researcher
  SEOUL (Yonhap) - North Korea could face its worst food shortage if its nuclear issue is not resolved soon, the head of a South Korean research institute said Tuesday. "Without a quick resolution of the nuclear problem, the North could experience extreme food shortages as seen in 1997," said Kim Woon-keun, who leads the Korean Peninsula Agro-fishery Policy Research Institute.
• World Red Cross and Red Crescent Day Observed
  Pyongyang, May 5 (KCNA) -- Colorful activities to observe the World Red Cross and Red Crescent Day (May 8) are being organized in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea so that all people may take an active part in the Red Cross and Red Crescent movement with a proper understanding of it. Min Pyong Gwan, secretary general of the Central Committee of the DPRK Red Cross Society, told KCNA that on this occasion it is planned to hold various functions including a briefing on Red Cross activities in Pyongyang.
• International Workshop for Peanut Breeders Given in Guinea
  Pyongyang, April 28 (KCNA) -- An international workshop for peanut breeders of African countries was given at the Kim Il Sung Institute of Agricultural Science in Guinea from April 4 to 8. The Guinean minister of Agriculture and Livestock, addressing an inaugural ceremony of the workshop, expressed his sincere thanks to leader Kim Jong Il for sending competent Korean agriculturists to it. Participants in the workshop from Guinea, Mali, Senegal, Nigeria and other countries noted that all the African people deeply revere President Kim Il Sung for the tireless efforts made by him for the development of agriculture in Africa and the south-south cooperation, adding that the workshop offered a good occasion of proving the vitality of the south-south cooperation in practice. Praising Kim Jong Il for his Songun leadership exploits, they stated that the Korean people remain undeterred by any moves of the U.S. to isolate and stifle the DPRK thanks to his mighty Songun politics. The participants adopted a letter to Kim Jong Il at its closing ceremony. [NK aid]
• Life Expectancy in North Falls by 6 Years in Decade
  By Bae Keun-min Staff Reporter North Korea's life expectancy dropped by 5.5 years to 67.2 years in 2002 from 1993. A total of 23.31 million people were residing in the North as of 2002. According to a report on reproduction and health by the North's population research institute, sponsored by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFDA), the life expectancy for males in the North fell from 68.5 years to 63.1 years during the 10-year period, while that for females declined from 76.1 years to 71 years. ___

• OCHA Bulletin February-March 2005
  Avian flu in DPRK - WHO and FAO assistance
• WFP to Suspend Food Aid to NK
  Food aid to the young, elderly and poor in North Korean will be suspended in June unless urgently needed new donations of cereal are made, the U.N. World Food Program (WFP) said. In an emergency report dated Friday, the Rome- based agency also said that food rations to pregnant and nursing women and children in nurseries and kindergartens will have to be cut by late July. ``Production in WFP-supported factories producing fortified food for children and PNWs (pregnant and nursing women) will be maintained until the end of August, and assistance to orphanages and hospitals until the end of September,'' the report said.
• Appeal from Duncan Maclaren
  Secretary General, Caritas Internationalis
• Caritas Appeal
  Emergency appeal for the ongoing food and health crisis in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) for the period April 2005 to March 2006
  This appeal seeks US$2,500,000 in cash support to assist in the sectors of food aid, health care, food security/agriculture, and capacity building and training
  1. OVERVIEW The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) - North Korea, first appealed for international assistance in the summer of 1995, after devastating floods had ruined the harvest and the food stock, thus weakening an already frail economy even further. For almost all of the decade since, Caritas has been involved in providing humanitarian assistance to the North Korean people. The first Caritas food aid shipment reached Nampo port on 24 November 1995 and by now assistance valued at over US$30 million has been provided by Caritas and its supporters.
  The humanitarian emergency in the DPRK is not over. North Korea was among the three Asian countries that suffered a decline in living standards during the 1990s. According to government figures, from 1993 to 1998, GNP dropped from US$991 to US$457. Life expectancy declined from 73.2 years to 66.8 years. The infant mortality rate increase from 14 to 22.5 (1999) per 1,000 live births and the under-five mortality rate nearly doubled, from 27 to 48 (1999). Since 1998, however, the country has experienced a modest revival in growth and improvements in living standards.
• U.S. still sending aid goods to North Korea
  April 22, 2005 ? A report from the U.S. State Department submitted to Congress on April 15 shows that despite a 1995 cutoff of official aid to North Korea, some exceptions have been made. The report noted the United States gave $242,000 in aid to help victims of the Ryongchon train explosion in the North last year. Of that, $100,000 went through the Red Cross, while the rest was sent directly as medical aid. Through the World Food Program, America has donated 50,000 tons of grain from December to this month, costing $22.3 million. Another 60,000 tons of grain were sent to the North in the first half of 2004, the report said. The North Korea Human Rights Act, effective from last October, requires the U.S. government to report to Congress on any U.S. aid for North Korea. The State Department report was drawn up to comply with this.
• Unofficially, North asks for 15 billion won in farm aid
  April 21, 2005 ? Through unofficial channels, North Korea has asked for 15 billion won ($15 million) in agricultural support from the South, Seoul officials said yesterday. The request was made through Juamhoe, an informal club of South Korean officials who accompanied then-President Kim Dae-jung to his 2000 summit with Kim Jong-il in Pyongyang. Members of Juamhoe, whose name comes from the Pyongyang state guesthouse where they stayed, met on March 30 in Kaesong with members of North Korea's Council for Reconciliation and Cooperation.
• Seoul to Give Anti-Bird Flu Kits to North Korea
  By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter South Korea will deliver anti-bird flu kits to North Korea through a West Sea route Saturday, the Unification Ministry said Wednesday. The ministry plans to send North Korea two quarantine vehicles and aid goods, including 20 high pressure sterilizers, 20,000 portable diagnosis kits and 18,000 kilograms of acid detergents, worth 720 million won ($710,000).

• South's aid to North depends on talks
  March 23, 2005 ? With direct contact between the two Koreas almost nonexistent, Chung Dong-young, the South's minister of unification, said yesterday that North Korea should have no expectation of receiving fertilizer aid from Seoul unless Pyeongyang resumes bilateral talks. In an interview with the JoongAng Ilbo, Mr. Chung, who also heads the National Security Council, said the two Koreas' governments have always held talks over procedures of the routine fertilizer aid to the North before shipments were made. "Unless there are talks between the two Koreas' authorities, it is difficult to make a decision on giving fertilizer or food aid," he said. Mr. Chung has been among the Roh administration's most conciliatory top officials on North Korea. Over the last six years, Seoul has sent 1.55 million tons of fertilizer to the North. North Korea normally requested about 300,000 tons of fertilizer each time, but Pyeongyang asked for 500,000 tons in February.
• World Food Program to Resume Distribution in North Korea
  By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter The World Food Program (WFP) plans to resume food distribution in Chagang Province, North Korea, this week as Pyongyang recently allowed it to become accessible for monitoring, the U.N. relief agency said in a recent report. Chagang Province, bordering China, was inaccessible for WFP monitoring since October 2004, making the agency stop delivering food assistance from early last December to late February. "With the seven counties in Chagang reopened, WFP now has access to 158 out of 203 counties and districts, representing 83 percent of the population," the WFP said in the report issued on March 18.
• Reference Book on NK Aid
  The government will publish a reference book for assisting North Korea in emergency situations, providing instructions for how the government and non-governmental organizations can best cooperate, officials said Monday.
• NK to Shut Down U.N. Office
  GENEVA (Yonhap) - A ranking United Nations official said Wednesday that North Korea has requested the closure of a U.N. office in its capital Pyongyang. Jan Egeland, U.N. undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, said that the North hopes that the Pyongyang chapter of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) will be shut down. Pyongyang has called for the U.N. to simplify its monitoring of humanitarian activities in the country since last August, according to sources. Currently, a foreigner and four locals are working at the OCHA office in Pyongyang.
• UN agency pleads for food aid for North
  March 15, 2005 ? The World Food Program has issued another appeal to help famine-stricken North Korea, saying that without new donations, many people will be at risk. In an emergency report last week, the UN-led relief agency urged the world to help the communist country's vulnerable population. Although expected cereal shipments will allow the World Food Program to feed its usual beneficiaries with planned rations through May, it faces serious supply shortfalls thereafter.
• Seoul to Continue NK Aid
  Chung Discounts Skepticism From US Congressman By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter South Korea is to make up its own mind about providing aid to North Korea as the communist country is considered a brother while Washington is an ally, Unification Minister Chung Dong- young said at a meeting of ministry officials on Monday. Chung, who concurrently chairs the standing committee of the National Security Council, was reacting to U.S. Rep. Henry Hyde's remarks last week on the Korean Peninsula, spokesman Kim Hong- jae said at a press briefing. [Aid weapon] [Friction]
• Pressure on Aid to North
  Close Cooperation With Washington Must Be Maintained North Korea has no doubt used aid from Seoul and Beijing as one of its weapons in defying Washington's demand that it return to the table of nuclear negotiations. On the other hand, the United States has considered it as the major obstacle to the resumption of the six-party dialogue, which has been suspended since the third round held in Beijing in June last year.
  Despite differences over how to bring the North to the forum, the government must closely cooperate with Washington for the sake of the longstanding strong alliance between the two countries. [Aid weapon]
• Seoul Deregulates NK Aid Groups
  (YONHAP) -The government eased regulations on civic organizations providing humanitarian aid to North Korea, the Unification Ministry said Sunday. The ministry said it removed a guideline mandating at least one year of consistent dealings or contact with North Korea before an aid body can apply for a government-issued license. The license entitles the holder to receive assistance from a government fund set aside to facilitate inter-Korean exchange and cooperation programs. ``The scrapping of the `one-year' clause should allow more groups to take part in helping North Korea,'' a government official said.
• International Red Cross Official Here
  Pyongyang, March 8 (KCNA) -- Reter Meister, chief representative for Asia-Pacific of the International Committee of Red Cross, arrived here today.
• Caritas in DPRK
  Press release by Duncan MacLaren, Secretary General of Caritas Internationlis, after his visit to the DPRK (1 to 8 March 2005).
  On his second visit to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), Caritas Internationalis Secretary General, Duncan MacLaren, said that, after ten years of activity in the country, the needs were still great. He said:- "In the five years since my last visit, there have been some positive changes - there is movement in the economy after the July 2002 reforms, there is more visible trading and more bikes on the road, for example. However, there are also growing gaps between the haves and have nots. While it was satisfying to note the positive impact of aid from Caritas, it was also obvious that there were still many needs." Mr MacLaren was accompanied by Ms Kaethi Zellweger of Caritas Hong Kong.
  Ms Zellweger said that one of the main problems was the energy crisis [Economic reforms]
• OCHA Bulletin December 04 - January 05

• Aid to North not tied to 6-way nuclear talks
  February 22, 2005 ? Giving fertilizer aid to North Korea is a separate issue from the six- party talks on nuclear disarmament, said Chung Dong-young, the unification minister, yesterday. Pyeongyang had requested 500,000 tons of fertilizer earlier this month. At the committee on unification, foreign affairs and trade, Mr. Chung said North and South Korea needed to negotiate and fertilizer aid would be discussed during bilateral talks. He noted that the government could not make a decision on its own as the amount of aid requested was so large, and it therefore needed united support. Over the last six years, Seoul has sent 1.55 million tons of fertilizer to the North. Each delivery followed bilateral discussions and the agreement of the Assembly. The minister added, "No aid was able to avoid this procedure." [Aid weapon] [Friction]
• Government Will Not Link Aid to NK Nukes
  By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter The government will continue providing fertilizer to North Korea despite Pyongyang's declaration of its nuclear state, Minister of Unification Chung Dong-young said Monday. ``We will not link the fertilizer aid program with North Korea's boycott of the six-nation nuclear talks,'' Chung said at a hearing in the National Assembly. ``We will discuss aid programs with the North when the inter-Korean dialogue resumes.''
  Seoul's fertilizer aid for Pyongyang has become a hot issue after Washington officials reportedly asked Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Ban Ki-moon to stop providing it to the North. Ban, who was visiting Washington last week, flatly denied such reports. [Aid weapon] [Friction]
• UN food aide surveys North Korea
  February 21, 2005 ? Gerald Bourke, the top World Food Program official in North Korea, said yesterday that the communist state is about 1 million metric tons of grain short of the minimum 5 million metric tons it needs to feed its population annually. Mr. Bourke, who answered questions sent by email, said that because the UN-run food agency follows a strict policy of "no access, no food," there are seven counties in Jagang province, and one county in South Hwanghae province that receive no food aid because the agency's staff is not allowed to monitor conditions there. The suspension of distribution came after the organization was denied access to the areas three times. Mr. Bourke said food aid to most districts of Pyeongyang stopped three years ago, except for orphanages, because residents in the North Korean capital have adequate supplies of food. "The potential for further improvement in output is constrained by a limited availability of arable land, deteriorating soil quality, and acute shortages of energy and of a wide range of much-needed inputs and machinery," Mr. Bourke wrote. He said the food situation in the urban areas is the most serious, saying that cities along the east coast, such as Chongjin and Hamhung, have large populations at risk. Asked whether he knew how much of the distributed food may go to the North's military, he said that the agency had no evidence of systematic diversion of its assistance to the military or the ruling elite. "Privileged North Koreans do not need WFP food aid. The military-elite take what they want from the national harvest in the form Koreans prefer: white rice. WFP tends to provide coarse grains, such as maize and wheat, that only the really hungry - our beneficiaries - would want to eat." Mr. Bourke said that South Korea is one of the major donors, having pledged 100,000 tons of maize each year for the past four years. [Diversion]
• 47th Visit to DPRK - September 2004
  Report by Kathi Zellweger of Caritas
  The international assistance provided, as well as measures taken by the DPRK government, have brought about changes but substantial needs for investment in infrastructure, energy and transport remain crucial if the country is to achieve real and lasting improvements. Moreover, with the economic reform process that started in July 2002 new vulnerability patterns are emerging, creating challenges for the humanitarian aid agencies and the government.
• DPRK Government Decides to Render Emergency Relief Aid
  Pyongyang, January 5 (KCNA) - - The government of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea decided to render emergency relief aid amounting to 150,000 U.S. dollars as regards the strong quake and tsunami that occurred in the waters off Sumatra Island of Indonesia on December 26 last year, causing huge material losses to Indonesia, India, Thailand, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Maldives and other countries. The government and people of the DPRK express deep condolences and sympathy to the governments and peoples of the afflicted countries and hope that the aftermath of the quake and tsunami will be eradicated and the living of their peoples return to normal as early as possible amidst the international concern.
• DPRK to Render 150,000$-- Damages of Earthquake and Tsunami in Off Sumatra Island
  The strong earthquake and tsunami occurred in the waters off Sumatra Island of Indonesia on December 26 last year causing huge material losses to Indonesia, India, Thailand, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Maldives and other countries. Hearing this news, the government of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea decided to render emergency relief aid amounting to 150,000 U.S. dollars, the KCNA reported on January 5. According to the KCNA, the government and people of the DPRK express deep condolences and sympathy to the governments and peoples of the afflicted countries and hope that the aftermath of the quake and tsunami will be eradicated and the living of their peoples return to normal as early as possible amidst international concern.
• China Donates Meteorological Equipment to DPRK
  The State Meteorological Bureau of China donated equipment for weather news service and observation to the Hydro-Meteorological Service of the DPRK, in accordance with a voluntary cooperation plan of the World Meteorological Organization. A presentation ceremony was held on January 25.
• N. Korea Asks for 500,000 Tons of Fertilizer
  By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter South Korea has been agonizing over a recent request from North Korea for an ``unusually'' large volume of fertilizer aid, officials in Seoul said Sunday. According to the Korean National Red Cross (KNRC), the North's Red Cross sent a telephone message on Jan. 13 asking for 500,000 tons of fertilizer for this spring. It marks a large increase from the 300,000 tons that Seoul has shipped to the North every year _ 200,000 tons in the spring and the remaining 100,000 tons in the autumn _ since the historic 2000 inter-Korean summit in Pyongyang, with the exception of 2001.
• UN Raises $127 Mil. for NK in 2004
  By Reuben Staines Staff Reporter The United Nations raised $127.6 million to assist impoverished North Koreans through a joint aid program in 2004, 39 percent below the targeted $191.9 million, according to a report released Sunday. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said it collected $96.3 million in food aid and $19.1 million for health assistance under the Consolidated Appeals Process (CAP), a multi-agency fundraising program for poverty-stricken nations. The remaining $12.2 million was for agriculture, water and sanitation, and education projects. Pyongyang received $133.1 million through the joint program in 2003, 58 percent of the targeted amount. However, North Korea will not receive CAP aid in 2005 as it withdrew from the appeal in September, stating that it was unable to meet U.N. distribution monitoring requirements due to ``security concerns.''

• Friendship link leads to Korea
  Salvation Army's name seen again in North Korea
  A PROJECT to package yoghurt in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (formerly North Korea) allows The Salvation Army's name to be used in that country for the first time since the Movement's work ceased there during the 1950s. The project - jointly funded by The Salvation Army in Switzerland and Australia - means that the red shield logo appears on every pot of yoghurt produced at the factory in Gynam.
  We learnt so much about the people of North Korea during our visit,' enthuses Major Le Leu. 'They are nervous about engaging with the outside world but are prepared to do so. They need to understand what The Salvation Army is. When a country like the People's Republic of Korea engages with the West we have to respond at its pace. Constructive projects like this will reap positive results.' - R. D.
  Salvationist 11 December 2004
• North Korea Thanks South for Fertilizer Aid
  By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter Pyongyang officially expressed gratitude on Friday for South Korea's completion of the shipment of an additional 100,000 tons of fertilizer aid to North Korea, according to government officials. ``We express gratitude for the (South's) provision of the 100,000 tons of fertilizer aid for this fall,'' Chang Jae-on, the North's Red Cross chief, said in a letter to his South Korean counterpart, Han Wan-sang. Chang also hoped for the continuation of such cooperation between the two Koreas, saying it will help inter-Korean relations as a whole. ``If Red Cross officials continue to cooperate, it will greatly help inter-Korean relations and reconciliation between nationals in the two Koreas.'' The letter came after Seoul completed shipment of 100,000 tons of fertilizer to North Korea last week. The final batch of 15,000 tons arrived at Nampo Port in the North on Thursday. It raised the total South Korean aid to the poverty-stricken communist state this year to 300,000 tons. Seoul had already sent 200,000 tons between April and June. So far, South Korea has provided 1.5 million tons of free fertilizer to the North, which has been relying on foreign aid since 1995 to help feed its 22 million people.
• Seoul to Send 100,000 Tons of Corn to NK This Month
  By Reuben Staines Staff Reporter South Korea said Thursday it will send 100,000 tons of corn to North Korea starting late this month as part of donations pledged through the World Food Program (WFP). The state-owned Agricultural and Fishery Marketing Corp. plans to buy corn from China and ship it directly to the North from a Chinese port, a Unification Ministry official explained.
• OCHA Bulleting October-November 2004
• Fertilizer Delivery Accomplished
  By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter South Korea finished delivering a total of 300,000 tons of fertilizer to North Korea this year, the Korean National Red Cross said Tuesday. ``By shipping out 15,000 tons of fertilizer from Yosu port, we've finished sending the 100,000 tons of fertilizer we had promised to the North during the second half of the year,'' the Red Cross said in a press release. Seoul presented 200,000 tons of fertilizer in humanitarian aid to the North between April and June
• Paek Nam Sun Receives Credentials from Representative of FAO
  Pyongyang, December 9 (KCNA) -- Paek Nam Sun, foreign minister of the DPRK, today received credentials from Noureddine Mona, representative of the FAO in the DPRK. After receiving the credentials, he had a conversation with the representative.
• North Korea - an enigma and an opportunity
  by Major Seth Le Leu
  IT'S easy to assume you know everything about a country from the way it's portrayed in the media. I found out just how wrong that view can be - or, at least, how one-sided - when I travelled to North Korea to see a venture The Salvation Army has entered into.
  North Korea is a beautiful country which, if it were not so isolated, would make a great tourist destination. And if I expected to see an unhappy people, suffering because of their country's isolation, I was in for a surprise.
  The people are industrious and proud. Local communities are entrusted with the upkeep of the roads in their area and everywhere we travelled there were teams of local people engaged in road repairs as part of their community service. It would be a brave mayor in the west who would suggest such a scheme in order to reduce local taxes!
  The country's economy is built on an agricultural foundation which relies on manual labour. Vast numbers of the population work the land and as we travelled we saw the harvest progressing. Teams of people with hand scythes were reaping the precious rice and maize which was loaded onto bullock carts to be taken to the stores.
  Each house in the rural areas had its own garden filled with vegetables, and in many places this produce was on sale from small roadside stalls. However, the North Koreans fear that all this work is not enough to ward off recurrent famine. To this end the government is engaged in a process of diversifying food production.
  For example, on one of the farms we visited ostriches were being farmed and their eggs were on sale in a supermarket in Pyong Yang. Another initiative to enhance food supplies is the establishment of a dairy industry. Dairy products are not a traditional food source in Korea, but for the past six or seven years the North Koreans have been working with the Swiss government to develop goat milk production and products. Children in kindergartens receive yoghurt from the dairy farms and the rest is sold in nearby towns. As people become more accustomed to these products the demand is growing and there is a need to provide machinery to package the yoghurt, which is where The Salvation Army comes in.
  Major Seth Le Leu is a New Zealand Officer serving as International Development Secretary, London.
• North Korea is failing to meet growth target
  Robin McKie and Angela Saini Sunday December 5, 2004 The Observer Sixty years of North Korean communism have had a grim and unexpected impact on its citizens: it has paralysed their growth. While their cousins in the south have thrived physiologically, thanks to the comforts of capitalism, North Koreans remain as stunted in stature as they were after the Second World War. Adolescents look like children, adults like young teenagers. Nor is the height difference a slight one. After studying more than 2,300 refugees who have fled the north over the past four years, anthropologist Sunyoung Pak has found that the average young northern male is 5.9cm (2.32in) shorter than his southern contemporary. The difference for women is 4.1cm (roughly 1.62in). 'North Koreans are clearly suffering from chronic growth retardation,' said Pak, of Seoul National University in South Korea. Her studies, to be published in the international journal, Economics and Human Biology, this month, suggest that North Koreans must have suffered severe malnutrition problems virtually since Korea split into two states in 1948. Her research shows that the only ages at which the average North Korean in her sample and the average South Korean share about the same height is from 50 to 69 years. Since height is determined during the early teenage years, this suggests that North Korea began to suffer food shortages at least by the 1960s.
• The biological standard of living in the two Koreas
  Sunyoung Pak*
  Department of Anthropology, College of Social Sciences, Seoul National University, 151-742 Seoul, Republic of Korea Received 25 September 2004; accepted 25 September 2004 Abstract
  Height data of North Korean escapees are analyzed to assess changes in their biological standard of living. In contrast to the population of South Korea, as well as to that of most of the rest of the world, North Koreans did not experience an increase in physical stature during the second half of the 20th century. The divergence between the height of North- and South-Koreans began among the birth cohorts of the late 1940s and became increasingly pronounced thereafter. This is an indication of the adverse socio-economic circumstances prevailing in the northern part of the Korean peninsula.

• New Zealand gives NZ$400,000 to World Food Programme
• Russian Premier Signs $360,000 Aid Proposal for N.K.
  [Moscow, KOTRA] Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov approved on Oct. 29 a plan for the Russian federal government to establish an aid fund worth 10.5 million rubles (approximately $360,000) for North Korea, it was disclosed through a government news conference. The fund will be used to cope with emergencies and calamities in North Korea, particularly to provide humanitarian aid to victims of man-made disasters. In addition to the central government, the Ministry of Civil Defense and Emergencies will participate in the program.
• S. Korean Ship Carrying Additional Fertilizer Aid Leaves for N.K.
  [Yonhap,Nov.16th] A South Korean freighter carrying the first shipment of the South's additional fertilizer aid to North Korea departed here on Tuesday night for the North's Nampo port, officials at the South Korean Red Cross said. "The 5,000-ton-class Sun Hope freighter left for North Korea's Nampo port, carrying 5,000 tons of fertilizer," a Red Cross official said. "The vessel is scheduled to arrive in the North on Thursday morning." Yeosu, a South Sea port about 455 kilometers south of Seoul, is home to the nation's major fertilizer plants. In late October, the South Korean government and the Red Cross announced a plan to provide North Korea with 100,000 tons of fertilizer by the year's end, in addition to some 200,000 tons sent between April and June. The South Korean government has been providing fertilizer aid to the North every year.
• zip file
  doc file
  FAO/WFP CROP AND FOOD SUPPLY ASSESSMENT MISSION TO THE DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF KOREA
  22 November 2004 Mission Highlights
  DPR Korea's food production in 2004/05 is estimated to show a slight increase of about 3 percent over last year's revised harvest, thus continuing the trend of recovery witnessed since 2001.
• Seoul to Buy Thai Rice for North Koreans
  By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter The government has decided to buy 100,000 tons of Thai rice, the last batch of food aid to North Korea, the Unification Ministry said Wednesday. In June this year, Seoul pledged to offer Pyongyang 400,000 tons of rice, including 100,000 tons produced in South Korea, as a long-term loan.
• NK to Suffer Food Shortage Despite Bigger Harvest
  By Reuben Staines Staff Reporter About 6.4 million North Korean children and old people will need food aid totaling 500,000 tons next year despite the communist nation posting its best harvest in 10 years, according to a new U.N. report.
• $2.2 Billion Flows Into NK Since 1996: Report
  By Seo Dong-shin Staff Reporter In response to the critical food shortage in North Korea after the massive flood in 1995, some $2.19 billion of international aid was received by the country, a research institute in Seoul reported Monday, quoting official data of the United Nations. Out of the total sum that flowed into the poverty-stricken nation between July 1996 and October this year, some $1.38 billion, or 62.8 percent, was aided through the Consolidated Appeals Process (CAP), through which U.N. agencies, national governments, NGOs and individual donors share information and set the aid goal together. International aid to North Korea can be categorized into the CAP and additional aid from individual countries and NGOs, according to Kwon Tae-jin, a senior researcher at the Korea Rural Economic Institute who wrote the report. [statistics] [Aid weapon]
• Cheju to Ship 10,000 Tons of Tangerines to N. Korea
  CHEJU (Yonhap) - South Korea's southernmost island province will ship 10,000 tons of tangerines in aid to North Korea, local government officials said Friday. The Cheju provincial government and a local civic group working to promote inter-Korean civic cooperation said they asked for support from the Unification Ministry to send the fruit by the end of the year. Cheju is a major tourist destination with extensive tangerine groves. It has donated about 25,000 tons of the fruit to North Koreans since 1998. It also supplied carrots _ 2,000 tons in 2000 and 4,000 tons in 2001.
• EC Posts Int'l Bidding for Farm Implements to Help N. Korea
  - Part of Program to Help Repair Flood Damage, Nov.3 Set As Bidding Deadline [Moscow, KOTRA] An international bidding for contracts to send various farm machines and their parts to North Korea has been posted on a European Commission Web site. The tender has been offered as part of the European Commission's food aid and security program to help North Korea recover from its latest flood damage. The program seeks to provide 75 units each for the following four categories -- tractors, plows, cultivators and trailers - to the North.
• OCHA Bulletin, August-September 2004
• Seoul Conducts Onsite Inspection of Rice Aid to N.K.
  [Yonhap,Oct.18th] South Korean officials conducted rare monitoring of food aid delivery to North Korea last week, praising Pyongyang for cooperating in the verification process, Unification Ministry officials said Monday. Two four-member teams went to two food distribution centers last week in Kosong and Kaesong, North Korean border towns on the eastern and western coasts, respectively. "North Korea's attitude has been generally cooperative in the first round of monitoring at food distribution centers," the ministry said in a press release. "North Korean residents were aware that the rice is being provided by South Korea and expressed their gratitude,"
  Seoul is one of the largest donors to North Korea, with 1.35 million tons of rice sent over the past few years. [Diversion]
• Australia to Offer A$ 1.1 Bil. Worth of Aid to the NK in 2004
  [Sydney, KOTRA] The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade reportedly gave North Korea an A$4 million (or 3.4 billion won) worth of assistance last August. The aid consisted of wheat flour, health-care equipment, children's medicine and the repair/maintenance of sanitary facilities. Having been offered mostly in the form of actual goods, the assistance was originally designed for an advance support to expedite a smoother resolution of the NK's nuclear problem during the official visit of the Australian minister for foreign affairs Alexander Downer to the North. [Aid weapon]
• WFP Confident Over Food Distribution in North Until Next Spring
  [Yonhap,Oct.26th] A top U.N. food official on Tuesday expressed his confidence over smooth food distribution in North Korea until early next year, Japan's public broadcasting station reported. Donated food to the North from other nations will be distributed without any problem until next spring, NHK quoted James Morris, the head of the World Food Program (WFP), as saying.

• North wants fertilizer but no give on families
  North Korea has asked the South urgently to send 100,000 tons of fertilizer, South Korea's Red Cross said yesterday. "North Korea has made three appeals since early last month through Panmunjeom," a South Korean Red Cross official said. South Korea proposed to hold Red Cross talks with the North to discuss the aid package and separated families, a Unification Ministry official said. The North asked the South again to send fertilizer on Tuesday, but did not answer the proposal on talks. "We send 200,000 tons of fertilizer in spring and another 100,000 tons in fall every year as humanitarian aid," the official said. "The government knows the North needs assistance, but public sentiment toward the North has worsened recently." Pyeongyang cancelled a planned family reunion last month.
• Seoul May Reject Pyongyang's Request for Fertilizer
  By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter North Korea's Red Cross has repeatedly called on South Korea to provide 100,000 tons of fertilizer, officials said Wednesday. But the Seoul government is unlikely to accept the request due to the stalled cross-border talks. ``We are not ready to send fertilizer to the North at the moment because there has been no progress in the government-level talks between the two Koreas,'' a government official said. [aid weapon]
• North Korea Requests Fertilizer Aid From South Korea
  [Yonhap,Oct.13th] North Korea's Red Cross requested 100,000 tons of fertilizer aid from South Korea, but the South indicated it would not be able to provide it because of stalled inter-Korean talks [aid weapon]
• N. Korea's Rice Price Falls Thanks to Food Aid, Corn Harvest
  [Yonhap,Oct.11th] Rice prices in North Korea have fallen by 25 percent thanks to rice aid from South Korea and the North's maize harvest, a U.N. relief agency said Monday. The U.N. World Food Program (WFP) said in its emergency report issued over the weekend that the North Korean market price for rice fell as the latest shipment of South Korean rice aid arrived in North Korea and the communist country began harvesting maize. The agency, however, did not reveal details about the price changes. In an earlier emergency report issued on Aug. 13, the WFP said the cost of rice in North Korea had almost doubled, rising from 240 North Korean won to 500 won per kilogram. According to South Korea's Bank of Korea, Pyongyang has set its official exchange rate for the North Korean won at 150 to one U.S. dollar, but the currency actually trades at 1,000 to one dollar in the black market. On Thursday, Good Friends, a South Korean religious group which sends food aid to North Korea, said the price has been on the rise from 350 won per kilogram during the March-April period to 500 won in June, 800 won in August and 900 won in September. The North's daily rationing of rice, meanwhile, stood at 300-350 grams per person in October, the WFP said.
• NK Rice Prices Fall Thanks to Food Aid: WFP
  SEOUL (Yonhap) - Rice prices in North Korea have fallen by 25 percent thanks to rice aid from South Korea and the North's maize harvest, a U.N. relief agency said Monday. The U.N. World Food Program (WFP) said in its emergency report issued over the weekend that the North Korean market price for rice fell as the latest shipment of South Korean rice aid arrived in North Korea and the communist country began harvesting maize. The agency, however, did not reveal details about the price changes. In an earlier emergency report issued on Aug. 13, the WFP said the cost of rice in North Korea had almost doubled, rising from 240 North Korean won to 500 won per kilogram. [Marketisation] [Economic reform]
• Aid Group to Set Up Church in Pyongyang
  By Moon Gwang-lip Staff Reporter A relief agency is to establish a church exclusively for foreigners in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital. When opened, foreign visitors and diplomats will be able to attend English prayer services in Pyongyang. The Korean Foundation World Aid, a group working for aid in North Korea, said Friday that it has agreed with eight U.S.-based missionary groups to join hands in establishing the church for foreigners in Pyongyang. If North Korea grants permission to its foundation, the church, tentatively called the ``Pyongyang International Harvest Church,'' will be the third official church in the North. ``The representatives of the joint team will soon visit Pyongyang to seek the government's permission for the church,'' said Lee Soo-jung, a member of the foundation. The first official church in North Korea, Pongsu Church was founded in 1988. Chilgol Church, was set up in 1999. Missionary groups participating in the plan include the Campus Crusade for Christ and the Love Network for Korea in Los Angeles. According to the plan, a total of $6 million will be invested to construct a four-story building with lodging facilities. The church will also run a school for foreign students, the foundation said.
• A Heartless Homeland
  Why more North Koreans than ever are fleeing their country. By Gregg Chenoweth & Tricia Miller | posted 10/06/2004 9:00 a.m. Christianity Today North Korean refugees rarely tell their stories. They are too busy ducking, whispering, and running. The wrong word finding its way to the wrong person could be disastrous. As a North Korean woman attending university in South Korea explained, "I fear my family will be harmed if I speak." In July, more than 430 North Koreans were airlifted to Seoul from an undisclosed Southeast Asian nation, possibly Vietnam. News reports called it the largest-ever movement of refugees into South Korea. Seoul is normally wary of accepting North Korean defectors for political and economic reasons, but apparently officials helped pave the way for these refugees. [evangelicalism]
• Christian Friends of Korea Newsletter
  September 2004
• US 'hyping' Darfur genocide fears
  Peter Beaumont Sunday October 3, 2004 The Observer American warnings that Darfur is heading for an apocalyptic humanitarian catastrophe have been widely exaggerated by administration officials, it is alleged by international aid workers in Sudan. Washington's desire for a regime change in Khartoum has biased their reports, it is claimed. The government's aid agency, USAID, says that between 350,000 and a million people could die in Darfur by the end of the year. Other officials, including Secretary of State Colin Powell, have accused the Sudanese government of presiding over a 'genocide' that could rival those in Bosnia and Rwanda. But the account has been comprehensively challenged by eyewitness reports from aid workers and by a new food survey of the region. The nutritional survey of Sudan's Darfur region, by the UN World Food Programme, says that although there are still high levels of malnutrition among under-fives in some areas, the crisis is being brought under control. 'It's not disastrous,' said one of those involved in the WFP survey, 'although it certainly was a disaster earlier this year, and if humanitarian assistance declines, this will have very serious negative consequences.' The UN report appears to confirm food surveys conducted by other agencies in Darfur which also stand in stark contrast to the dire US descriptions of the food crisis. The most dramatic came from Andrew Natsios, head of USAID, who told UN officials: 'We estimate right now, if we get relief in we'll lose a third of a million people and, if we don't, the death rates could be dramatically higher, approaching a million people.'
  Concern about USAID's role as an honest broker in Darfur have been mounting for months, with diplomats as well as aid workers puzzled over its pronouncements and one European diplomat accusing it of 'plucking figures from the air'. Under the Bush administration, the work of USAID has become increasingly politicised. But over Sudan, in particular, two of its most senior officials have long held strong personal views. Both Natsios, a former vice-president of the Christian charity World Vision, and Winter have long been hostile to the Sudanese government. [human rights][Camouflage]
• Hindering the helpers
  Pyongyang's growing suspicion of external aid shows it is retreating further into its shell despite growing pressure to open up. Jonathan Watts explains Friday October 1, 2004 Recent reports that North Korea is trying to reduce the presence of foreign aid agencies in Pyongyang have highlighted the growing pressure on the isolated regime to open up. The pressure comes from two directions - inside- out and outside-in - that have come to reflect the differences between radical and cautious proponents of change. Hawkish inside-outers, who include US neo- conservatives and South Korean Christians, want to bring down the "great leader", Kim Jong-il, as quickly as possible. Their preferred method is to "squeeze" North Korea in order to encourage a mass exodus of refugees similar to that which led to the fall of the Berlin wall.
  Last month, the North unilaterally announced that it would not take part in the next UN consolidated appeal for aid - the means by which it has requested help from international donors for the past eight years. Instead, it wants to switch the focus of support from short-term humanitarian food aid to long-term development assistance. [Media]
• School Bell Tolls Again for Pupils in Ryongchon
  Destroyed School Rebuilt by Domestic and Foreign Support Rehabilitation of Ryongchon County from Train Explosion

• N Korea's Food Rationing Centers Paralyzed
  [Yonhap,Aug.31th] North Korea's state-run food-rationing centers have been increasingly unable to function, forcing ordinary North Koreans to depend on their factories, companies and public offices for grain supplies, a local think tank said Tuesday. The Seoul-based Institute of North Korea Studies said the North's worsening food shortage has virtually paralyzed the operations of its rationing centers nationwide since the 1990s [PDS] [Marketisation]
• Seoul to Buy Rice from Vietnam, Thailand for Delivery to N.K.
  [Yonhap,Aug.10th] South Korea will purchase 200,000 tons of rice from Vietnam and Thailand and send them directly to North Korea beginning next month to help ease its chronic food shortage, officials said Tuesday. The shipment is part of 300,000 tons of rice South Korea plans to buy overseas for delivery to the impoverished communist state by ship.
• Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2005
  (Placed on Calendar in Senate) US Senate S.2812 NORTH KOREA AND BURMA SEC. 597. None of the funds made available in this Act or prior Acts making appropriations for foreign operations, export financing, and related programs as a United States contribution to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria may be made available for assistance for the Government of North Korea or the State Peace and Development Council in Burma, or affiliated groups and organizations.
• Crop and Food Supply Assessment Mission to the DPRK
  September 16th, 2004
  DPR Korea continued its recovery in agricultural production that started in 2001, with this year's food production showing some improvement over the previous three years.
  The main factors behind this continued recovery include favorable weather conditions especially at the beginning of the season, a relatively low incidence of crop pests and diseases, increased application of fertilizer provided through international assistance, improved irrigation facilities in the main Cereal Bowl region of the country due to completion of the Kechan-Taesong Lake canal funded by the OPEC, improved availability of electricity for irrigation pumping stations, and enhanced mechanization resulting from greater availability of fuel and spare parts.
  The 2003/04 cereal production, including potatoes in cereal equivalent, is forecast at 4.16 million tons, the best harvest over the last nine years, and 4.7 percent larger than last year's revised estimate.
  Despite the recovery over the last three years, domestic production still falls well below the minimum food needs and the country will again have to depend on substantial external food assistance as its capacity to import commercially remains highly constrained.
• DPRK Hit by Torrential Rain
  Pyongyang, September 14 (KCNA) -- Many areas of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea were hit by a torrential rain. There was a heavy rain throughout the country from 15:00 Sept. 11 to 06:00 Sept. 13 owing to a tropical depression, 239 mm in Sinchon, 209 mm in Kangryong, 205 mm in Ongjin, 201 mm in Sariwon, 197 mm in Anju, 196 mm in Kangnam, 157 mm in Sukchon, 155 mm in Pyongyang, 144 mm in Haeju and 138 mm in Pakchon. There was a pouring rainfall of 80 mm in Kangnam, 66 mm in Kangryong, 60 mm in Sinchon, 52 mm in Anak and 50 mm in Phyongwon from 09:00 to 12:00 Sept 12 alone. Nearly 13,000 hectares of farmland were inundated and scores of dwellings and more than ten public buildings were damaged in South Hwanghae Province by the deluge of rain. And river banks and roads were destroyed at some ten spots. In North Hwanghae Province some 2,800 hectares of farmland were submerged and rice plants of more than 2,600 hectares fell down. Ninety dwellings were flooded in Sariwon. In South Phyongan Province some 80 dwelling houses which had been under construction totally collapsed. All efforts are now being focused on healing the damage in the flood-stricken areas.
• ACDPU's US Branch Is About to Retreat From a Baking Factory Project Within the NK
  [Atlanta, KOTRA] The Atlanta Economist reported on August 26 that a plan for establishing a baking factory on the Geumgang Mountain in North Korea that was driven by the council of the ACDPU (Advisory Council on Democratic and Peaceful Unification) which covers five regions of the Eastern America was at at stake. According to the newspaper, North Korea one-sidedly notified the ACDPU¡¯s executive office that it would stop the establishment of the baking factory. As a result, the ADCPU council¡¯s plans for a trip of three days and two nights to Mt. Geumgang and the establishment of baking factory have bogged down.
• Ryongchon Primary School Near Completion
  "They will Live Forever in Our Minds" -- Overcoming Grief Over Classmates' Death, Students Look Forward To A New School Term
• Schools Open in Ryongchon
  Pyongyang, September 2 (KCNA) -- Ceremonies of opening Ryongchon Primary School and Ryongchon College of Agriculture in the DPRK took place on September 1 amidst the blessing of people. These schools were most seriously destroyed when there was a sudden explosion of two wagons at Ryongchon Railway Station on April 22. New buildings of these schools have been successfully built earlier than other objects in a matter of a little more than four months to receive students.
• Construction of Dwellings Completed in Explosion- hit Ryongchon
  Pyongyang, September 6 (KCNA) -- The construction of dwellings for 1,650 families has been completed in the damaged area of Ryongchon County, North Phyongan Province, amid deep care of the people of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Some 130 days after the wagon explosion, the area has turned into a town teemed with many modern two-three storey dwelling houses. The colorfully painted houses of various styles lend a new beauty to the area. Each apartment houses six to eighteen families. Each flat, covering 60-70 square meters, has two or three living rooms, a kitchen, a bathroom, etc.

• Christian Friends of Korea Newsletter August 2004
• OCHA DPR Korea Situation Bulletin for June and July 2004.
• Last shipment of aid heads for Yongcheon
  South Korea has sent its last shipment of aid to help in the reconstruction of the city of Yongcheon in North Korea, the site of a massive rail explosion in April, the Korean National Red Cross announced yesterday. A chemical blast at the town's train station devastated a large portion of the border city with China and claimed more than 160 lives with children accounting for most of the deaths. The last aid ship carrying 150,000 square meters of waterproofing boards left Incheon yesterday for Dandong, China's port city near the border of North Korea, a Red Cross official said. [Ryongchon]
• North is said to turn down aid from UN
  North Korea has turned down humanitarian aid from a consolidated aid program arranged by the United Nations, but said help is welcomed if it comes through individual UN bodies and non- governmental groups, a UN official reported. In New York, Christelle Loupforest of the UN-led Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Monday North Korea last week had declined to accept aid through "Consolidated Aid Process," through which the United Nations coordinates international donations centrally. Pyeongyang cited its reason for the rejection as the UN program's lack of capability to assist North Korea's long-term growth, Ms. Loupforest said. She, however, said the UN believes in the efficiency of their program. The UN body is seeking further talks with Pyeongyang on the matter to maintain its aid program in the North, she said.
• N. Korea Declines UN Aid From 2005
  North Korea has told the United Nations that it does not need any humanitarian aid from the international organization for 2005 or later, U.N. officials said on Friday. Officials of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said the North gave the notification through the U.N.'s Pyongyang office Tuesday, without providing any further explanation. The OCHA held a meeting at the U.N. headquarters in New York on Friday and told the top North Korean envoy to the U.N. that humanitarian aid to the poverty-stricken nation needs to be continued.
• Who cares?
  The number of humanitarian crises in the world is greater than ever before but most go unreported in Western media. Sophie Arie in Rome and Jason Burke reveal the extent of the suffering - and the nightmare facing aid agencies Sunday August 15, 2004 The Observer
  The continuing famine in North Korea is another example of how politics and climate can interact with devastating results. Following earlier flood warnings, the Red Cross is now reporting that nearly 40,000 families have been displaced in North Korea as a result of heavy rains. The rainy season has also washed away at least 100,000 hectares of paddy and non-paddy fields and cut roads and rail links, mainly in the south of the country. The northernmost province of Ryanggang is currently inaccessible because bridges on the main road were destroyed by the floods. Yet, with North Korea listed in Washington's Axis of Evil, aid for the state has been cut by 80 per cent since 2001. According to Powell, the WFP had to make a nightmarish decision. 'Do we feed the pregnant women and the malnourished children or do we feed the elderly? We could no longer do both. So we stopped giving food rations to the elderly. We have had to cold bloodedly categorise people. It's an excruciating decision to have to make.'
• WHO rep: Success in Yongcheon
  The massive train explosion in April was a disaster for North Korea, but it coped with the aftermath successfully, the World Health Organization's representative to Pyeongyang said yesterday. During his visit to Seoul, Dr. Egil Sorensen said yesterday that reconstruction work in Yongcheon, about 250 kilometers (155 miles) from Nampo, where the blast occurred, has almost been completed. "Overall, the government handling of the accident has been quite acceptable," Dr. Sorensen said. "But the outcome would have not been so good without international assistance."
  He stressed that outside assistance had proven extremely effective in the North, citing the South's past contribution of medicine. "We have received malaria control medicines from South Korea, and that reduced the number of malaria patients in the North drastically," Dr. Sorensen said. "In 2001, about 300,000 North Koreans suffered from malaria, but the number has decreased to 40,000 last year." [Ryongchon]
• Construction of Ryongchon Progresses Apace
  Pyongyang, August 12 (KCNA) -- The construction of the Ryongchon area has progressed apace in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea after a train explosion at Ryongchon Railway Station in April this year. The construction of 1,650 dwelling houses and about 30 public buildings is near completion. The finishing touch is being given to the repair of 5,500 dwelling houses and 40 public buildings and the construction of water supply and sewage facilities and roads.
• Yongcheon students get new building for classes
  Students of Yongcheon Elementary School in North Korea, which was destroyed by an explosion at a nearby station in April, will begin their fall semester in a new building, a Japanese newspaper reported. Chosun Sinbo, a newspaper of pro-Pyeongyang Korean residents in Japan, said yesterday that about 85 percent of recovery operations in Yongcheon have been completed. The new four- story Yongcheon elementary school is nearly finished, the newspaper said. The destroyed three-story building, which was only 150 meters (492 feet) from the explosion site, had been built in 1973. At the time of the blast, 710 children were in the building, the newspaper said. The accident took the lives of 54 students and two teachers and injured 600. According to the report, 1,250 students will return to the new school to attend an opening ceremony on Sept. 1. "We tried to resume classes three days after the explosion, but the classrooms were empty and unprepared," Choe Byong-ryop, principal of the school, was quoted as saying. "Loud noises reminded some students of the accident, and they became visibly scared. We need to help them mentally." [Ryongchon]
• Unlikely Partners in the Quest for Juche: Humanitarian Aid Agencies in North Korea
  Edward P. Reed August 10th, 2004 This special report by Edward P. Reed, the Associate Director of the Center for East Asian Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, was presented at the 2004 Workshop: "Towards a Peaceful Resolution with North Korea: Crafting a New International Engagement Framework" in Washington D.C. The workshop, which ran from February 12-13, 2004, was hosted by the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP) and the Korea Economic Institute (KEI), in cooperation with the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). Reed argues that, "aid agencies must negotiate interventions that are development-oriented, while at same time employing an operational style that builds the institutional and personal trust on which acceptable levels of accountability are based."
  The human suffering in North Korea today is the result of a failed system operating in a hostile international environment. Humanitarian aid organizations cannot solve this problem. Only sustained, multi-faceted, systemic change based on political decisions in Pyongyang can set North Korea on the path to building an economy that can meet the basic needs of its people. Change in the international political environment, especially reduction of tensions with the United States and acceleration in South-North Korean rapprochement, are needed to encourage and facilitate this process. So, what is the role of aid agencies in this constricted and wholly politicized situation?
• CARITAS AND THE NORTH KOREAN CRISIS:
  Concern for People in Need Kathi Zellweger Caritas-Hong Kong Korea Quarterly Vol 4 No 1 2004
  Since autumn 1995, Caritas-Hong Kong has been the liaison or lead agency for the worldwide Caritas network, for assistance to North Korea. The work of Caritas in North Korea has certainly been, and still is, very challenging. So far humanitarian aid valued at over US$27 million has been provided, with Caritas-South Korea as one of our strongest supporters. [Aid] [Economic reform]
• Seoul requests art from Yongcheon kids
  [Ryongchong] The Seoul City government is planning to decorate a wall near the restored Cheonggye stream with paintings by children from Yongcheon, North Korea, where a massive train explosion killed hundreds of residents, many of them yougsters, in April. Through South Korea's Red Cross, we have asked the North to send artworks painted by Yongcheon children," a Seoul official said. "We have asked for 100 pieces; [if sent], this would be the first time North Korean children's artwork has been put on permanent display in the South." Merchants in the Cheonggye neighborhood sent children's clothes and other goods to aid residents in the aftermath of the train blast. The city plans to unveil the mural next September, about the time the restoration of Cheonggye stream is completed.
• Director-General of FAO Arrives Here
  Pyongyang, August 4 (KCNA) -- Jaques Diouf, director-general of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, arrived here Wednesday. He was greeted at the air port by Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Choe Su Hon who is chairman of the National Committee of the FAO and Abu Y. M. Selim, acting resident coordinator of the United Nations here. The DPRK government hosted a reception in honor of the director- general this evening.
• Japan to Send $47M in Aid to N. Korea
  By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: August 5, 2004 Filed at 3:09 a.m. ET TOKYO (AP) -- Japan will send $47 million in food and medical supplies to North Korea, the first batch of humanitarian aid promised by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi when he visited North Korea in May, the government said Thursday. Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda said Tokyo will monitor whether the aid gets to the country's neediest. A second shipment may be arranged in the latter half of the fiscal year, which ends in March 2005, he said. Tokyo has said the aid is being sent at the request of international organizations.
• Food Aid Distribution in N.K. More Transparent
  [Yonhap,Jul.29th] The transparency of humanitarian food aid distribution in North Korea has improved as the communist country eased its restrictions on international monitors, Voice of America (VOA) said Thursday, quoting a former U.S. official. Jack Pritchard, a former U.S. special envoy to the North, said North Korea's relations with the World Food Program (WFP) have improved as the North allowed the U.N. agency to increase its inspection visits to food distribution centers over the past six months, according to the VOA, monitored here. His remarks came days after the United States announced it would provide the North with 50,000 metric tons of food through the WFP, the largest international aid body operating in North Korea. The U.S. donated 100,000 tons of food to the North last year, 207,000 tons in 2002 and 350,000 tons in 2001, according to the U.S. State Department. The former envoy added that the average number of monthly monitoring trips to food distribution sites increased to 513 last year, up from 430 in 2002. North Korea has restricted outside inspection of its food distribution, raising speculation that it may be diverting aid to its military. South Korean officials, however, dismissed such a possibility. Of the 206 cities and counties in the North, 43 are still off-limits to international monitors, South Korean officials said. The impoverished communist country has been relying on outside handouts since 1995 to help feed its 22.5 million people. Its economy was devastated by years of mismanagement and natural disasters
• DPRK Hard Hit by Torrential Rain
  Pyongyang, August 2 (KCNA) --Various parts of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea were hard hit by recent torrential rain. In July some areas of the country were struck by downpour several times.
• Russia Donates Food to DPRK
  Pyongyang, August 1 (KCNA) -- About 35,000 tons of food donated to the DPRK by Russia through the World Food Program arrived at Nampho Port on July 31. Russia's donation of food to the DPRK is an expression of the traditional relations of friendship between the two governments and two peoples and an encouragement to the Korean people.
• NK Aid Transparency Urgent, Defector Says
  By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter Increased aid to North Korea prompted by the continuing thaw in inter-Korean relations has largely failed to alleviate the severe economic hardships and food shortages faced by its general population, according to a defector who is on the frontline helping North Korean asylum seekers. Lee Kum-kwan, who arrived in Seoul in 2002 and is working for a religious group that assists North Koreans in China to escape to the South, expressed deep concerns over the distribution of international aid in the North.
  The 28-year-old defector explained that most of the North's national budget and international aid is funneled into Kim's guards [diversion] [Defectors reports]
• Heavy Rain Damages Crops and Homes in North Korea
  By REUTERS Published: August 2, 2004 Filed at 2:40 a.m. ET SEOUL (Reuters) - Torrential rain has devastated swathes of North Korea, forcing more than 1,000 families from their homes, destroying crops and severely damaging railway lines, the official KCNA news agency said on Monday.
• Paek Nam Sun Meets U.N. Resident Coordinator
  Pyongyang, July 29 (KCNA) -- DPRK Foreign Minister Paek Nam Sun met and conversed with Masood Hyder, U.N. resident coordinator to the DPRK who paid a farewell call on him today.

• Humanitarian Goods Donated to DPRK
  Pyongyang, July 23 (KCNA) -- The International Rotary donated humanitarian goods to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. A donation ceremony was held in Pyongyang on Wednesday. Present there were the members of its free cooperation delegation headed by Randal Eastman.
• U.S. Pledges 50, 000 Tons of Food to North Korea
  By REUTERS Published: July 23, 2004 Filed at 8:49 p.m. ET WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States pledged 50,000 tons of food aid on Friday for North Korea this year, weeks after the two countries appeared to make some progress toward resolving a two-year-old nuclear weapons standoff. The United States, which is traditionally one of the top food donors to the impoverished, Communist nation, says its aid is independent of its negotiations to persuade Pyongyang to dismantle its nuclear programs.
• TRIP REPORT BY KATHI ZELLWEGER, CARITAS-HONG KONG
  46th VISIT TO THE DPRK (1 TO 15 JUNE 2004)
  Some seven years have passed since the food security crisis in the DPRK was at its most critical. The country still suffers from chronic shortages of energy and raw materials, outdated industrial structures and technology and low productivity. Agricultural production levels, although increased, are still low and improvements in the industrial economic situation slow. The food security situation is, therefore, still fragile. The first steps towards economic reform taken in July 2002 revealed the development of a growing separation between the 'have and have-nots' within DPRK society. Caritas has been supporting the people of the DPRK since autumn 1995 and humanitarian assistance provided has made a difference. By now, some small-scale rehabilitation and development projects have been initiated, thus a shift has been taking place from providing handouts to a partnership approach. Continued funding for the current Caritas appeal (SOA19/2004), however, is needed because up to 30 June 2004 only 37% of the targeted amount of US$2.3 million was received or pledged.
• Roh, Koizumi offer aid to N.K.
  Korean president says time not appropriate for inter-Korean summit JEJU - President Roh Moo-hyun and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi promised yesterday that the two countries would provide economic assistance to North Korea if the North dismantled its nuclear weapons programs.
• N. Korea Opens Border to Receive Rice Aid from S. Korea
• UN Consolidated Appeal
  Mid year 2004 1 1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY On Thursday 22 April 2004, two train wagons exploded at Ryongchon Station, Ryongchon County, North Phyongan Province in Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). The explosion injured approximately 1,300 people, 370 of whom were hospitalised, many with severe injuries. The blast killed 161 people, including 76 children. Ryongchon County, which has a population of 123,200 people, of whom 27,000 live in the county city, was devastated. The explosion caused major damage to housing and infrastructure, including schools and medical facilities. Destroyed or rendered unsafe by the explosion were 1,850 dwellings. An estimated 1,850 families (approximately 8,000 people) have been made homeless. The affected area represents nearly 40% of the township. The impact of this disaster is magnified because it has taken place due to continuing economic difficulties and ongoing deficiencies in the health sector. Emerging from this tragic incident are two encouraging developments. Firstly, the DPRK authorities facilitated the response to the disaster by international humanitarian aid agencies through improved dialogue, openness and access. This allowed information on the disaster to be disseminated quickly contributing to the mobilisation of over US$ 30 million in assistance within two weeks of the disaster. UN agencies such as World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and World Food Programme (WFP) as well as the Red Cross were able to relocate, within 48 hours, medical and relief supplies already in the country to Ryongchon and hospital in Sinuiju where the injured were treated. Secondly, there has been a very generous response to the Government's request for international assistance. This response was in part thanks to the cooperation and openness shown to international aid agencies by the Government. This experience could be applied to the wider humanitarian programme. The disaster in Ryongchon has taken place amidst continuing economic difficulties. The consequences of DPRK's economic adjustment programme are becoming clearer. Large segments of the population are confronted with a serious reduction in purchasing power resulting in increased food insecurity. At the same time the quality and quantity of basic social services continue to diminish. This is happening as food aid contributions have become erratic. As a result of funding shortfalls this year, there were major interruptions in the provision of food aid, resulting in the World Food Programme (WFP) having to take up to three million beneficiaries off its assistance programme. If this continues, apart from the increase in human suffering, the painstaking gains in reversing the effects of malnutrition will be lost. The country has made steady progress in reducing chronic malnutrition among children over the last decade; however there has been virtually no reduction in severe malnutrition due to the under-funding of activities in the health sector, which directly contributes to increased deaths and suffering particularly in children, women and elderly. The experiences of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) last year and the Ryongchon train blast this year illustrate the vulnerability of the weak health sector and increase the risk of outbreak of communicable diseases and epidemics. Against this backdrop, the DPRK Inter-Agency Consolidated Appeal has been revised. This revision presents a situation analysis and additional planned programmes to meet assessed humanitarian needs in DPRK that have emerged since the launch of the Consolidated Appeal in November 2003. These requirements complement and update existing projects and programmes with targeted activities in Ryongchon, and bring total requirements to US$ 208,928,930. Of this, US$ 39,647,837 has been pledged or contributed so far, leaving an unmet requirement of US$ 169,281,093.
• OCHA Bulletin April, May 2004
• Seoul to Send 100,000 Tons of Rice Aid Overland to N. Korea
  [Yonhap,Jul.13th] North Korea will open its land border to receive South Korean rice aid for the first time since Seoul began providing food assistance in 1995, the Unification Ministry said Tuesday.
• Train Explosion in Ryongchon Station
  Reconstruction in Full Swing in Damaged Area Basic Restoration Will Be Completed Within 3 Months: Official
• 100,000 Tons of Rice to Be Given to NK
  By Yoo Dong-ho Staff Reporter South Korea will provide 100,000 ton of rice to North Korea through the North's land border for the first time since Seoul began the food assistance to its impoverished neighbor in 1995, the Unification Ministry said Tuesday. The aid, one-fourth of the 400,000 tons of rice Seoul committed to loaning the North, will be sent to the North via routes through the eastern and western sections of the heavily fortified border, at a date to be fixed later, ministry officials said. Seoul earlier informed Pyongyang of its plan to truck 20,000 tons of rice via the overland routes, but the North instead asked the South to send 100,000 tons in a telephone message last week, the officials said.

• Relief Goods to DPRK from South Side
  Pyongyang, June 2 (KCNA) -- The south side sent medicines, medical appliances, daily necessaries and other relief goods several times as regards the accident of explosion at Ryongchon Railway Station. Meanwhile, different south Korean organizations, enterprises and individuals in China sent various kinds of relief goods.
• Rehabilitation of Ryongchon Progresses Steadily
• Relief Goods Donated to DPRK
  Pyongyang, May 29 (KCNA) -- Relief goods were sent to the DPRK by various countries and international organizations in connection with the explosion at Ryongchon Railway Station in North Phyongan Province. Emergency relief goods came to the DPRK from China, Russia and Syria at the end of April. In May relief goods including medicines, medical apparatuses and daily necessaries were sent to the DPRK by governments, organizations, institutions, enterprises and individuals of various countries including Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Singapore, Cambodia, Thailand, Japan, Greece, Norway, the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Switzerland, Sweden, the Czech Republic, France, Finland, Poland, Ireland, United Kingdom, Austria, the U.S.A., Canada and Australia. Those things were also donated to the DPRK by international and regional organizations including the UN Office for the Co-Ordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent, the World Health Organization, the United Nations Children¡Çs Fund, the World Food Program, the United Nations Population Fund, and the European Union.

• World Food Program short of aid for North
  The United Nation's World Food Program announced yesterday that it has had to halt food supplies to 1 million North Koreans, starting this month. The agency added that an additional 3.8 million beneficiaries of the food program are in danger of losing their rations beginning in October, if further donations from the international community do not become available. As a result of a drop in donations, the agency had to borrow 25,000 tons of cereal in February from North Korea's strategic food reserve in order to continue aid.
• NK Leader Thanks World Leaders
  North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has sent letters to international leaders thanking for their condolences and help over last month's train explosion in Ryongchon, North Korea's Central Broadcasting Station reported Sunday.
• South Korea's Relief Aid for the Victims of the Train Explosion in Ryongchon
• Sights of Silence
  By RICHARD RAGAN as told to JAMES BROOKE Published: May 23, 2004
  Richard Ragan is DPRK Country Director, World Food Programme, Pyongyang
  North Korea is a whisker smaller than my home state, Mississippi. But when I heard about the explosion last month at Ryongchon train station, I knew I was in for a long, hard drive. As the crow flies, it was 300 miles. But I was in the northeast corner of the country, near the Russian border, when I heard the news on the BBC. With North Korea's bumpy dirt roads and circuitous routes, our convoy of white Toyota Land Cruisers faced a three-day, 800-mile road trip. In March, I moved from Zambia to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and took over the United Nations World Food Program mission, the largest foreign aid program in North Korea. Because I knew our office and staff 10 miles from the blast site at Ryongchon would be overwhelmed, I had to go.
  We didn't show up at the hospital to just look around. We delivered oil, biscuits and wheat. But we are pulling resources from a program that is way underfinanced. Across the country, we are supposed to be feeding 6.5 million people a month. In April, we fed 3.2 million. In May, we will be feeding only 2.6 million. And after September, we will be at zero. Maybe this tragedy will jolt the world awake.
• Relief goods leaving today for North Korea [photo]
  [Photo]Relief goods leaving today for North Korea
• DPRK Red Cross Meeting Held
  Pyongyang, May 19 (KCNA) -- A Red Cross meeting of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea has been held at the People's Palace of Culture in Pyongyang from May 18 to 19. The meeting reviewed the achievements made by the DPRK Red Cross Society in its activities and chose the orientation it should take for its development until 2010 to suit the new environments of the 21st century. It also discussed and decided on its program.
• International aid has been rushed to the disaster struck Ryongchon
  Statistics on aid
• Rice aid eyed if North responds
  The Asahi Shimbun Tokyo is seeking progress on the abduction issue. The government will provide North Korea with much-needed food assistance if Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visit to Pyongyang brings results in the abduction issue, sources said. However, some officials say the pending offer of 250,000 tons of rice could be seen as ``a reward'' for bad behavior. [Aid weapon]
• Equipment for Joint Flood Prevention Sent to North Korea
  By Yoo Dong-ho Staff Reporter South Korea on Tuesday sent a package of survey equipment to North Korea for a joint flood prevention system for the Imjin River, which runs through the Demilitarized Zone that separates the two Koreas.
• Patients Airlifted from Ryongchon
  Pyongyang, May 13 (KCNA) -- A helicopter flew for patients of the damaged area in Ryongchon County. A lot of patients wounded in an unexpected accident at Ryongchon Railway Station have been carried to the North Phyongan Provincial People's Hospital, Sinuiju City People's Hospital No.1 and other medical institutions in the province. Doctors have hurled themselves into strained treatment for the recovery of the patients.
• Seoul Relief Team Delivers Heavy Equipment to NK
  By Jung Sung-ki A team sent by the South Korean government on Thursday crossed the Yalu River from China to deliver heavy equipment directly to North Korea to help the victims of the blast in Ryonchon, Seoul officials said.
• Emergency Relief Campaign for Ryongchun Explosion Victims
  Young Koreans United of USA, Korean Alliance for Peace and Justice, and World Food Programme are launching an emergency relief campaign for the victims of the massive explosion at Ryongchun station in April 22nd in North Korea
• All Koreans Render Assistance to Ryongchon
  Ryongchon, May 11 (KCNA) -- All the Koreans are rendering powerful assistance to Ryongchon County in its efforts to recover from the damage. Officials and employees of the Secretariat of the Cabinet, the Ministry of Construction and Building-Materials Industries, the Ministry of Metal and Machine-Building Industries, the Ministry of Light Industry, the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Land and Marine Transport, the Pyongyang General People's Service Bureau, the Academy of Medical Science, the Red Cross General Hospital of Korea, Kim Il Sung University, the Grand People's Study House and many other units procured materials needed for rehabilitation and all sorts of daily necessities with sincerity.
• . Korea Opening to World through Ryongchon Disaster
  [Yonhap,May.6th] North Korea has altered its longtime isolationist attitude to the world while receiving international donations for last month's train explosion, a senior United Nations official said Thursday. "The response of the North Korean government, as seen by many, was a very positive one," Tony Banbury, the World Food Programme's director for Asia, said in a press conference in Seoul. "They relatively quickly acknowledged the accident, quickly asked for international assistance, and they were very supportive of the World Food Program, at first, to deliver assistance on the spot to victims," he said
  When we asked the director of the hospital (at Shinuiju) what you needed, he said 'everything,'" Banbury said, "and from our observation, he was not exaggerating." The World Food Program has a branch office in Shinuiju, about 20 minutes' drive from Ryongchon, where about 360 victims are being treated at a hospital. Concerning reports that aid supplies are being delayed on their way to Ryongchon, Banbury said the problem mainly comes from the lack of infrastructure for international aid transportation in North Korea.
• Shipment of Reconstruction Goods Leaves for NK
  By Yoo Dong-ho Staff Reporter A South Korean chartered cargo ship left for North Korea on Monday to deliver relief materials and construction equipments for the victims of the massive explosion of April 22 in the North Korean town of Ryongchon.
• Relief Organization Formed in Japan
  Pyongyang, May 10 (KCNA) -- A liaison council of Japan for the relief of victims of an explosion at Ryongchon Railway Station grouping seven organizations in Japan including the National Association for the Promotion of Japan-Korea Diplomatic Relations and the Society of Japan for Solidarity with Korean Women was reportedly inaugurated on April 30. Representatives of those organizations in their statement released at a press conference in Tokyo recalled that the DPRK government rendered aid to Japan when there was the great earthquake in Hanshin in 1995 and said that "there exist pending issues between Japan and the DPRK but the humanitarian aid should be given on the basis of different judgment." They called on all the people in Japan to cooperate in raising fund.
• New approach in aid to North needed, experts say
  North in Need: Last of series "For the Korean Peninsula to rise as an economic force in Northeast Asia, the recovery of North Korea's economy is essential," says Lim Kang- taeg, a member of the Presidential Committee on the Northeast Asian Business Hub. But critics say that South Korea's current attitude toward aiding the North only increases the financial burden on the South, and has no real beneficial effects on the North's economy under its leader, Kim Jong-il. Most North Korea experts say future aid to the North needs to be aimed at helping the country support itself. This means future aid must include not just humanitarian relief, like food and medicine, but upgrades to the country's outdated roads and railways. "The time has come for South Korea to shift from merely providing emergency relief to assisting North Korea's development process," said Korea University Professor Kim Yeon-chul.
• Messages of Sympathy to DPRK from Foreign Countries
• Red Cross Relief Activities in Ryongchon
  Pyongyang, May 8 (KCNA) -- The Red Cross Society of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea is conducting brisk relief activities for healing the damage caused by the explosion at Ryongchon Railway Station in North Phyongan Province on April 22 and stabilizing the living of the victims.
• Shipment of Reconstruction Goods Leaves for NK
  By Yoo Dong-ho Staff Reporter A South Korean chartered cargo ship left for North Korea on Monday to deliver relief materials and construction equipments for the victims of the massive explosion of April 22 in the North Korean town of Ryongchon
• Seoul Sends Aid to North Korea Overland
  By Yoo Dong-ho Staff Reporter Trucks carrying relief and educational supplies left to North Korea on Friday to help victims of last month's massive blast at a train station in Ryongchon
• Trucking for disaster victims
  South Korean trucks loaded with aid for victims of the train blast in Yongcheon, North Korea, cross the inter-Korean border yesterday, heading for the North's Gaesong, from which North Koreans will drive the trucks to Yongcheon. The trucks will also be donated for Yongcheon relief efforts. [Photo]
• . Korean Public Organizations Call for Helping Compatriots in Ryongchon
  Pyongyang, May 5 (KCNA) -- Public organizations of south Korea called for active assistance to help recover from the damage in Ryongchon of the north. The Women Committee of the Headquarters of the Movement for Making Our Fellow Countrymen One and the Women Committee of the Reunification Solidarity made public a joint appeal on April 26, calling upon all the south Korean people to share the sufferings of compatriots and help them without any political calculation or condition.
• Anniv. of Int'l Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies Observed
  Pyongyang, May 5 (KCNA) -- Minju Joson today dedicates a signed article to the 85th anniversary of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. The federation has conducted positive work with the national Red Cross organizations, the article says, and continues: The federation together with different national Red Cross organizations has conducted diverse activities to help different parts of the DPRK in health service, water sanitation and management of properties and the work to develop the federation.
• Medical aid is North's most pressing need
• Ryongchon People Grateful for Nationwide Assistance
  Ryongchon, May 4 (KCNA) -- With the world's attention being focused on Ryongchon County, North Phyongan Province, since the explosion at Ryongchon Railway Station on April 22, a large number of people have shown up in the ravaged area. They are much surprised to see the sufferers who are full of confidence and optimism, not in despair over the serious damage. An old man who has lived there since his birth told KCNA: "Public buildings and dwelling houses were devastated in a twinkling. A large number of people lost their houses. They sighed out their grief. Before nightfall, however, trucks loaded with meals and daily necessities began to arrive here. Despair was replaced with hope all at once."
• Can efficient potato farms end North's food problems?
  North in Need: Part 2 of 6 North Korea's most urgent need is food aid: While people in the North may no longer be starving, as they were in the late 1990s, many still suffer from malnutrition. Every year, the South Korean government sends 300,000-400,000 tons of rice, worth billions of won (millions of dollars), to the North. But every year, the North lacks 1.5 million tons of rice; what is currently provided is not enough.
• 3rd Shipment Airlifted to NK
  The government and Red Cross on Tuesday airlifted a third batch of emergency relief goods for North Korean victims of last month's train explosion in Ryongchon.
• Goh Focuses on Ryongchon
  Acting President Goh Kun on Wednesday asked the nation to pay more attention to child victims of the explosion in Ryongchon, North Korea. In a speech marking Children's Day, Goh said, ''It was upsetting to see pictures of young victims of the April 22 tragedy.
• N.K. to Open Land Border with South for Aid Delivery
• South to offer North rice aid; Kim reappears
  The South Korean government said yesterday it will send as much as 400,000 tons of rice to North Korea, now coping with the aftermath of a massive train explosion in Yongcheon in addition to facing a decade of economic hardship and famine
• Relief Goods Reach DPRK
  Pyongyang, May 1 (KCNA) -- The whole quantity of the relief goods including tents, blankets, foodstuff and building materials worth 10 million Renminbi Yuan donated by the Chinese government to the DPRK in connection with the explosion at Ryongchon Railway Station in North Phyongan Province reached there Friday. Reaching Pyongyang that day were more than 30 tons of relief goods including foodstuff for children, medicinal drops and medicines donated by the Syrian government to the DPRK. Present at the airport were Ri Yong Sok, vice- chairman of the DPRK Flood Damage Rehabilitation Committee, officials concerned and Muhammad Adib Alhani, Syrian charge d'affaires ad interim, and embassy officials. A representative of the Ministry of Health of Syria conveyed them to Ri Yong Sok. Meanwhile, a large quantity of relief materials including medicines, clothes, foodstuff and building materials came to the DPRK from different institutions, enterprises and individual figures in Shenyang and Dandong of China from April 26 to 29.
• Seoul aid to go overland
  Reacting promptly to a changed North Korean position, unification ministry officials said yesterday that about twenty dump trucks and other construction equipment to be sent across the Demilitarized Zone by road would begin to move later this week as part of relief efforts for survivors of the Yongcheon explosion. After criticism of its refusal to allow South Korean relief equipment and supplies to travel across the Demilitarized Zone, North Korea said late last week that it would allow those supplies to be transported by South Korea as far as Gaeseong, just across the border with North Korea.
• MCC responds to North Korea crisis
  * $13,000 Cdn./ $10,000 U.S. for medical supplies In response to last week's deadly train blast in North Korea, Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) is sending $13,000 Cdn./ $10,000 U.S. to contribute toward purchasing badly needed medical supplies, including antibiotics, tetanus shots, topical creams, IV fluids and pain relief.
• Amcham contributes $8,500 to Yongcheon
  The Partners for the Future Foundation of the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea delivered a check for 10 million won ($8,540) to the Korean Red Cross yesterday. The donation is to assist the victims of the Yongcheon train station explosion in North Korea.
• Seoul Will Send Team to Aid NK Relief Effort
  Details to Be Discussed at Cabinet-Level Talks Soon By Yoo Dong-ho Staff Reporter South Korea will send a team of government officials and experts to Dandong, China to help organize a relief effort for the reconstruction of Ryongchon, North Korea, the town devastated by a massive blast at a train station on April 22.
• Kim Jong Il Receives Messages of Condolence from Foreign Heads of State
• Messages of Sympathy to Kim Yong Nam from Heads of State of Various Countries
• KCNA Slams Groundless Accusations over Ryongchon Accident
  Pyongyang, April 30 (KCNA) -- There are some sheer rumors intended to hamstring the humanitarian efforts of the international community to help the DPRK in its effort to recover from the damage caused by the explosion at Ryongchon Railway Station. Some media in the United States and south Korea slandered the DPRK, saying that it is responding in a passive manner to the strong willingness of south Korea and the international community to assist victims, there is an insufficient medical force in the north and it is indifferent to treating the wounded and it has sealed off the scene of accident to prevent journalists from covering news, etc. These accusations made by some media of the U.S. and south Korea instead of expressing sympathy and sharing pain with its victims over the unexpected accident can not be interpreted otherwise than an act of the wicked. The DPRK government expressed thanks to the governments of many countries and international organizations for having extended deep sympathy and rendered assistance, upon hearing the news that the accident claimed huge human and material losses, and highly appreciated them as a manifestation of noble humanitarianism. It is doing its utmost to recover from the damage and bring the life of inhabitants in the afflicted area to normal at an early date. It is making every possible effort to treat the inhabitants in the afflicted area as it has an advantageous medical system, able medical staff and competent medical institutions. Such being a hard fact, the dishonest forces are twisting the truth in a bid to do harm to the DPRK by spreading sheer lies. This can never be justified as it is an inhuman act intended to attain a sinister purpose. They are, in fact, working hard to disgrace the image of the DPRK over the disastrous accident, displeased with the increasing humanitarian aid of the international community. This can never be tolerated as it adds to the pain of the victims of the disaster. Those forces have not sent even a single medicine and a piece of bandage, paying lip- service to assistance. Yet, they are busy speaking ill of those who are sending relief materials out of sincerity. One of those backbiters is Jo Kap Je, editor-in- chief of the south Korean magazine Wolgan Joson. He termed the south Koreans' sincere efforts to assist the north over the accident as a psychiatric deed, saying that assisting Ryongchon is little short of bribing the north. This only discloses his true colors as a villain. Such behaviors deserve worldwide denunciation even in view of elementary moral ethics. We will keep following those who are decrying the humanitarian aid.
• Koreans in Japan to Donate Relief Fund to Ryongchon Inhabitants
  Pyongyang, April 30 (KCNA) -- The officials of the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (Chongryon) and Koreans in Japan are conducting a brisk mass campaign to help out of ardent compatriotism the inhabitants in Ryongchon, North Phyongan Province recover from the damage caused by the explosion at Ryongchon Railway Station and bring their life to normal at an early date.
• Nation-wide Assistance to Accident Victims
  Ryongchon, April 30 (KCNA) -- People throughout the Democratic People's Republic of Korea are sincerely assisting sufferers from the explosion at Ryongchon Railway Station in the northwestern part of the country on April 22. Vice-Premier of the Cabinet Ro Tu Chol, who is also chief of the Central Headquarters for the Reconstruction of the Afflicted Area in Ryongchon, told KCNA: Large quantities of relief goods for the people in the afflicted area have been brought to the area continuously. Though the economic situation of the country is still difficult, people throughout the country are rendering sincere assistance to Ryongchon County.
• NK Accepts Overland Relief Goods Delivery
  By Shim Jae-yun Staff Reporter North Korea will partially accept South Korea's proposal to send relief goods for the victims of the devastating train collision in Ryongchon via inland roads of the North across the heavily fortified demilitarized zone, it said on Friday. In a telephone message to its South Korean counterpart, the North Korean Red Cross said it would receive the supplies including trucks, heavy equipment and others in Kaesung near the border.
• North Approves Aid by Land, Says Thank You to South
  By REUTERS Published: May 1, 2004 Filed at 2:35 a.m. ET SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea has agreed to accept some aid from the South for victims of last month's deadly train blast by land, rather than its previous insistence that supplies should come only by ship or air. In a letter to South Korea's Red Cross, Pyongyang -- which strictly blocks its people from contacting South Koreans -- also accepted Seoul's offer to send specialists to teach North Koreans how to use equipment for reconstructing the destroyed village, the unification ministry said in a statement. It also expressed gratitude to South for providing the aid.
• U.S. Offers Aid in Wake of North Korean Rail Disaster
  White House April 26 statement The White House issued the following statement April 26 describing plans to offer assistance to North Korea following last week's rail disaster in Ryongchon: THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary April 26, 2004
• U.S. Government responds with $100,000 to IFRC appeal for DPRK
  Date: 27 Apr 2004 Source: US Agency for International Development
• First Batch of Relief Goods from South Side Here
  Pyongyang, April 29 (KCNA) -- Medicines, blankets, clothes, foodstuff, etc. worth one million U.S. dollars, arrived at Nampho Port today as the first batch of relief goods donated by the south side to the north side free of charge in the wake of an explosion that occurred at Ryongchon Railway Station in North Phyongan Province
• Message of Sympathy from Fidel Castro
• Message of Sympathy to Kim Yong Nam from Cambodian King
• S. Korean Enterprises and Organizations Willing to Assist Ryongchon Accident Victims
  Pyongyang, April 29 (KCNA) -- More south Korean enterprises and organizations sent messages of sympathy to organizations concerned of the DPRK including the Korea Asia-Pacific Peace Committee and the National Reconciliation Council in connection with the accident that occurred at Ryongchon Railway Station and expressed their willingness to give assistance to its victims. Hyundai Asan in its message hoped that everything would be rehabilitated and it will return to normal at an early date, expressing deep sympathy with the north over the tragic accident.
• China says Kim requested aid
  BEIJING ? On his visit to China last week, North Korea's leader Kim Jong-il requested 200 million yuan ($24 million) worth of aid from the Chinese government, a Chinese government official said yesterday. The official said that Mr. Kim made the request when he met with Hu Jintao, China's president, and Wen Jiabao, its premier. The types of aid provided to the North would vary, but would include food, crude oil, steel, construction materials and cash, according to the official. Most of communist China's fourth generation of political leaders are said to judge Mr. Kim to be "extremely pragmatic."

  Caritas appeals

  • NEW APPEAL S.O.A. 19/2004
    A) Ongoing Food and Health Crisis (April 2004 - March 2005) US$ 2,300,000 (= € 1,937,500) B) Train Explosion US$ 200,000 (= € 168,480) Total : US$ 2,500,000 (= € 2,105,980)
  • Explosion in Ryongchon County on 22 April 2004
    Request for relief and rehabilitation assistance: US$ 200,000 SOA 19/004 B
  • EMERGENCY APPEAL FOR THE ONGOING FOOD AND HEALTH CRISIS
    IN THE DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF KOREA (DPRK) FOR THE PERIOD APRIL 2004 TO MARCH 2005 SOA19/2004 A
    THIS APPEAL SEEKS US$2,300,000 IN CASH SUPPORT TO ASSIST IN THE SECTORS OF FOOD AID, HEALTH CARE, FOOD SECURITY/AGRICULTURE, AND CAPACITY BUILDING AND TRAINING

• North is seeking gear to rebuild
  North Korea rejected yesterday a South Korean offer of medical supplies to aid victims of Thursday's explosion in the city of Yongcheon, but said it would accept construction materials and heavy equipment to help with rebuilding efforts.
• Aid for North bears a touch of capitalism
  A touch of capitalism is included in the first aid packages the South Korean Red Cross prepared yesterday for victims of the train explosion in Yongcheon, North Korea. The agency said yesterday it had prepared 3,000 kits that include such necessities as toothpaste, soap, underwear, instant noodles, canned foods and blankets. The packages are scheduled to be shipped tomorrow. The agency said the relief supplies had originally been set aside for potential South Korean victims of flooding this summer, but it decided to send the supplies to the Yongcheon victims instead, since their needs are urgent and immediate. According to the Red Cross, the supplies include some expensive products, such as beauty soap containing mud. Also, most products have South Korean brand and price tags, and many have English brand names and foreign words on their packaging, the agency said. For underwear, the agency said, the packaging contains images of partially clad Western models.
• Damage Caused by Explosion on Steady Increase
  Ryongchon, April 27 (KCNA) -- Results of further investigation into the explosion of wagons that occurred at around 12:15 on April 22 say that the damage is unexpectedly gaining in scope. Horrible is human and material loss within the radius of 4 km including Pukjung Workers' District as well as Ryongchon Township.
• Kim Jong Il Receives Message of Sympathy from Former S. Korean President
  Pyongyang, April 27 (KCNA) -- Kim Jong Il, chairman of the National Defence Commission of the DPRK, received a message of sympathy from former south Korean President Kim Dae Jung on April 26 as regards an explosion of wagons at Ryongchon Railway Station.
• Every Possible Effort Made to Recover from Damage
  Ryongchon, April 27 (KCNA) -- The government of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea is exerting its utmost efforts to recover from the damage by the explosion of wagons at Ryongchon Railway Station and bring the living of inhabitants to normal as early as possible. The Central Guidance Headquarters for the Reconstruction of the Afflicted Area in Ryongchon was organized with Ro Tu Chol, vice- premier of the Cabinet, as its chief and able officials of the Cabinet, ministries and national institutions as its members.
  Managing teams for the reconstruction were organized to build 2 to 3 storey apartment houses for 6 or 12 families on the basis of standard housing designs. Necessary workforce and machines including bulldozers, cranes and trucks are already in place. The builders have already pitched tents and buckled down to the project. As of April 27 the craters were filled and major railways were rebuilt to resume the train service. Humanitarian aid from different countries of the world and international organizations greatly encourage the Korean people in rehabilitation.
• Seoul Sends 1st Shipment of Relief Goods to NK
  By Yoo Dong-ho Staff Reporter A chartered cargo ship on Wednesday left for North Korea to deliver relief goods worth $400,000 for the victims of last week's massive explosion at the North Korean town of Ryongchon.
• Civic Coalition Launched to Help NK Victims
  Delegation Leaves for Dandong to Deliver Relief Supplies to North By Soh Ji-young Staff Reporter More than 40 civil, social and religious organizations on Tuesday launched a body to provide full-range support to victims of a huge train blast in Ryongchon, North Korea
• FKI to Raise 10 Bil. Won to Help NK Victims
  By Seo Jee-yeon Staff Reporter The Federation of Korean Industries (FKI) on Tuesday decided to raise up to 10 billion won from member companies to help North Koreans suffering from the train blast in Ryongchon last week.
• US pledges aid to North Korea after train explosion
  Agencies in Washington Tuesday April 27, 2004 The Guardian The United States yesterday promised a package of financial assistance to help North Korea cope with last week's train blast that killed at least 161 people. Secretary of state Colin Powell said Washington was prepared to get involved in relief efforts for thousands injured and made homeless by the explosion, despite a protracted stand-off over Pyongyang's suspected nuclear weapons programmes. "We will be making an offer, some financial assistance, and we are waiting to see what the need is and what else we might be able to do," Mr Powell said. "We are making the United Nations aware of our willingness to participate in whatever relief efforts it might be appropriate for us to participate in."
• North spurns trucked goods
  North Korea refused yesterday to open up its heavily guarded border for the delivery of relief goods from South Korea's Red Cross. It also turned down offers to dispatch South Korean medical teams and a hospital ship to aid persons injured in the explosion and fire Thursday at a rail station in Yongcheon, near North Korea's border with China. Pyeongyang asked Seoul to send the goods by sea through the port of Nampo instead. It said that it had a sufficient number of medical teams already operating in the area of the accident. It said it still wanted to meet with South Korean officials at Gaeseong today to discuss relief measures.
• Dented but not discouraged, fund-raisers continue work
  A bit of the steam went out of efforts to organize aid for North Korea by South Korean groups and individuals yesterday afternoon after the North rejected Seoul's offers of medical teams and overland delivery of relief supplies. But the groundswell of pity and a desire to help was still strong. Fund-raising campaigns were in full swing all across the nation.
• Damage by Explosion at Ryongchon Railway Station
  Pyongyang, April 26 (KCNA) -- As already reported, a strong explosion was caused by the contact of electric lines during the shunt of wagons loaded with nitric ammonium fertilizer and tank wagons at Ryongchon Railway Station in North Phyongan Province, northwestern part of Korea, on April 22. Damage by the explosion is very serious. According to the preliminary investigation made so far by a relevant organ, the radius of damage is 2 km and most serious is the damage within the radius of 1.5 km. The wagon explosion made a 15 meter deep crater. More than 30 public, industrial and commercial buildings and houses for at least 8,100 families were destroyed. Houses for 1,850 families were leveled and those for 6,250 families partly destroyed. Those buildings partly destroyed have to be rehabilitated. At least 150 people were killed and over 1,300 wounded. The number of those missing is still under investigation. The DPRK government is doing its best to take emergency measures for rehabilitation. Humanitarian aid from many countries and international organizations is greatly encouraging the Korean people in their efforts to recover from the damage.
• First Installment of Emergency Relief Goods from China Arrives
  Sinuiju, April 25 (KCNA) -- The first installment of emergency relief goods including food worth 500,000 Renminbi Yuan reached the spot on Sunday. This is part of the relief goods worth 10 million Renminbi Yuan to be donated by the Chinese government to the DPRK in connection with the explosion that occurred at Ryongchon Railway Station, North Phyongan Province. Gu Jinsheng, economic and trade counsellor of the Chinese embassy in Pyongyang, handed them over to Vice-Chairman of the North Phyongan Provincial People's Committee Choe Rin Se.
• Ministries and National Institutions Assist Ryongchon County
  Pyongyang, April 26 (KCNA) -- Officials of ministries and national institutions are sending quantities of aid materials to the people in the damaged area upon hearing news of a sudden accident in Ryongchon County. The State Planning Commission, the Ministry of Construction and Building Materials Industries, the Ministry of Forestry and the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications prepared building materials including hundreds of tons of cement and tens of cubic meters of timber and materials and equipment for communications.
• Seoul's 1st Relief Shipment to Head for NK Wednesday
  Pyongyang Rejects Overland Delivery
• Modest U.S. Aid for North Korea
  By CHRISTOPHER MARQUIS Published: April 27, 2004 WASHINGTON, April 26 - The Bush administration on Monday offered $100,000 in financial aid to North Korea as it copes with the aftermath of a train explosion that left as many as 8,000 people homeless.
• North Korea blast prompts Japan aid pledge
  The government decided Sunday to provide emergency aid to North Korea following last week's massive train yard explosion. Tokyo is planning to give Pyongyang medical relief supplies worth $100,000 through international organizations.
• N. Korea Sets Limits on Aid
  Government Rejects Foreign Offers to Treat Blast Victims By Anthony Faiola Washington Post Foreign Service Tuesday, April 27, 2004; Page A18 TOKYO, April 26 -- The international outpouring of sympathy for North Korea since a catastrophic explosion Thursday in the town of Ryongchon has created a predicament for the secretive government in Pyongyang: How far should it allow the helping hands of foreign charity to reach?
• New Zealand to support UNICEF in North Korea
  26 April 2004
  New Zealand is providing NZ$540,000 to the United Nations Children's Fund, UNICEF, for its programme in North Korea, says Foreign Minister Phil Goff.
• Children suffer as N Korea struggles
  Death toll from train explosion likely to rise as aid workers tell of lack of medicine and equipment at hospital Jonathan Watts in Beijing Monday April 26, 2004 The Guardian Dozens of North Korean children who were badly burned or hit by debris during last week's train explosion are dying in pain because the ill- equipped hospital where they are being treated has been overwhelmed by casualties, it emerged yesterday.
• Seoul joins in relief to North
  The South Korean government and civic groups here are attempting to join international relief efforts after an explosion and fire in North Korea on Thursday that killed at least 150 persons
• Kim Jong Il Receives Message of Sympathy from Hu Jintao
  Pyongyang, April 25 (KCNA) -- Kim Jong Il, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and chairman of the National Defence Commission of the DPRK, received a message of sympathy Friday from Hu Jintao, general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and president of the People's Republic of China. The message says: When hearing the sad news that a serious explosion which occurred at Ryongchon Railway Station in North Phyongan Province of your country on April 22 caused big human and material losses, I express deep sympathy to you and, through you, to the families of the victims on behalf of the party and government of China.
• Kim Jong Il Receives Message of Sympathy from Putin
  Pyongyang, April 25 (KCNA) -- Kim Jong Il, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and chairman of the National Defence Commission of the DPRK, received a message of sympathy Saturday from V. Putin, president of the Russian Federation. The message says: I heard the sad news that a big accident took place at Ryongchon Railway Station, claiming huge casualties and serious destruction.
• China to Donate Emergency Relief Goods to DPRK
  Pyongyang, April 25 (KCNA) -- The Chinese government decided to donate emergency relief goods worth 10 million Renminbi Yuan to the DPRK in connection with the wagon explosion that occurred due to carelessness at Ryongchon Railway Station, North Phyongan Province on April 22. The delivery of the relief goods to the spot will start on Sunday. Governments of many other countries and international bodies and organizations have expressed their willingness to provide humanitarian aid.
• Sympathy to Kim Jong Il from Pakistani President
• Message of Sympathy to Kim Jong Il from Syrian President
• Seoul's 1st Relief Shipment to Head for NK Wednesday
  Pyongyang Rejects Overland Delivery By Yoo Dong-ho Staff Reporter South Korea will send its first shipment of relief goods for victims of a massive explosion in Ryongchon, North Korea as early as Wednesday, Unification Ministry officials said on Monday. ``A commercial ship named `Trade Fortune' will sail from Inchon Port for the North Korean port of Nampo on Wednesday afternoon. It will take roughly a day for it to get to the North,'' a ministry official said. Seoul's fast-track delivery plan suffered a setback as Pyongyang rejected its request to use an overland route to transport relief assistance. It made a counterproposal to hold a meeting today at Kaesong, a North Korean border town.
• Seoul to Sidestep Rules for Fast Delivery
  By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter The $1 million worth of relief goods South Korea has promised to offer the victims of the North's deadly train explosion last Thursday will likely go without prior report to the National Assembly.
• 161 Deaths Reported, Death Toll to Rise
  North Korea's official death toll from a devastating train explosion rose to 161 - up from the 154 reported earlier, the Red Cross said on Sunday.
• Ryongchon Reduced to Ruins
  Ryongchon, a North Korean town near the Chinese border, was devastated by Thursday's massive train explosion, according to witnesses and international media reports.
• Fundraising Campaigns Launched to Help Victims
  By Soh Ji-young Staff Reporter In a rare show of unity, organizations from all walks of life in South Korea are joining relief efforts to help North Korean victims in last week's devastating train blast. A coalition of about 90 Seoul-based civic groups and labor unions, including the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, on Monday launched a fundraising campaign to aid the victims of the explosion in Ryongchon, which killed at least 161 people and injured 1,300.
• Anti-NK Papers Lead Donation Drives
  By Shim Jae-yun Staff Reporter The nation's two most outstanding conservative newspapers Chosun Ilbo and Dong-a Ilbo on Monday drew particular attention when they launched donation campaigns to help the victims of the recent train explosion in North Korea while providing wide coverage of the tragic incident. Their move was unusual as they have maintained negative views and reflected a hawkish conservative stance regarding North Korean affairs.
• Former President Offers Condolences to NK
  Former South Korean president Kim Dae-jung sent a letter of consolation to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il on Monday over the huge blast that took the lives of more than 160 and injured over 1,300 in Ryongchon, North Korea.
• BBC Uses False Photo on NK Explosion
  By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter The British Broadcasting Company (BBC) made an erroneous reporting over the train explosion in North Korea by posting an incorrect satellite photo showing huge clouds of black smoke billowing from the alleged blast site on its Website
• NOGs Seek to Send Relief Workers to NK
  By Soh Ji-young Staff Reporter Local civic groups are promoting a plan to carry out relief activities in Ryongchon, North Korea to provide emergency aid to victims of Thursday's train station explosion.
• United Methodists meet with North Korean Christians
  Christians in North Korea are eager to strengthen ties with their U.S. counterparts, according to United Methodists visiting there recently. A seven-member delegation from the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries, led by Bishop Joel Martinez of San Antonio, paid a July 22-30 visit to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
• Aid Workers Describe N. Korea Blast Scene
  Sunday April 25, 2004 7:46 AM By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN Associated Press Writer DANDONG, China (AP) - Aid workers allowed Saturday into secretive North Korea described a ring of devastation around this week's massive train explosion and said 76 of the 154 people confirmed dead were children in a school destroyed by the blast. International relief was on the way Sunday, prompted by North Korea's unusual request for outside help. South Korea's Red Cross said it will dispatch food and medical supplies as early as Tuesday. Chinese relief goods were also on the way.
• Railway blast triggered North Korean paranoia
  Huge explosions as 154 were killed made people think they were under nuclear attack from US Jonathan Watts in Dandong on the China/North Korean border Sunday April 25, 2004 The Observer
  North Koreans thought they were under nuclear attack from the United States when they first heard the blast from Thursday's huge train explosion, it was revealed yesterday. The paranoia of a country that has been at war for more than 50 years was made apparent to international aid workers, who visited the devastated site for the first time yesterday as the government in Pyongyang revealed that 76 children were among those killed in the disaster. In a breakthrough for the secretive nation, 40 representatives of the United Nations, the Red Cross and other groups were allowed to visit Ryongchon, the town close to the border with China, where a train filled with industrial explosives caught fire. The aid workers talked to local people, who told them of the horror they imagined when they heard the first deafening blasts. 'I thought the Americans had finally dropped the bomb,' one woman told Kaika Rajahuhta of the International Red Cross. The Finnish aid worker said other locals had told her the same apocalyptic thought crossed their minds.
  Casualties, however, appear to have been far lower than the initial reports of 3,000 dead or injured
  Aid workers said the situation appeared to be under control.
  Passengers on one of the first trains to cross the border since the accident said the authorities appeared to be coping. 'This is not the catastrophe I had expected after seeing the initial reports,' said Jacek Poniewienski, of the Polish Railway Transport Enthusiasts Society, who spoke through a carriage window during a stop in Dandong. 'There was no smoke and our train was able to arrive here on time.'
• Seoul to Send $1 Mil. Emergency Aid to North Korea
  For Victims of Massive Explosion at Railway Station The South Korean government decided on Saturday to send $1 million worth of medical supplies and other emergency relief to North Korea following Thursday's massive train explosion in Ryongchon that killed at least 150 and injured 1,300.
• Relief Goods to Be Sent to NK Overland Tuesday
  By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter The first batch of $1-million worth of relief goods Seoul offered to North Korea for the victims of the explosion in Ryongchon in North Pyongan Province will be dispatched as early as on Tuesday via an overland route, according to officials on Sunday. The shipment will include 100,000 boxes of ramyon (instant noodles), 12,000 bottles of mineral water, 3,000 blankets, 3,000 sets of relief materials and 3,000 pieces of sportswear, the Korean National Red Cross (KNRC) said.
• Civic Groups Join Relief Aid for NK
  About 30 civic groups in South Korea have come forward to offer help as of Saturday and said they were moving to collect medicine, emergency food and equipment to help the North Korean victims and aid the reconstruction effort. They said basic medicine such as penicillin, anti-hemorrhaging agents and bandages should be sent first, as well as medical supplies for severe burns. They said they will conduct a nationwide contribution drive to help the North Korean victims and try to send a medical team to the explosion site. Reports from Dandung, China said that local North Korean residents were sending aid shipments to Ryongchon and were ready to receive patients if a train expected from the town arrives Sunday
• Parties Out to Help NK Victims
  By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter Political parties on Sunday called for active support to help the victims of the recent explosion in Ryongchon, a town in North Korea's North Pyongan Province. The opposition Grand National Party (GNP) said its party members will carry out a fundraising campaign to help the victims of the devastating train explosion. ``Members of the GNP and its lawmakers will raise funds to express our hope for the North's swift recovery from the disaster,'' GNP secretary general Kim Hyong-o told reporters. It is first time for the conservative party to take the lead in assisting the communist North. The GNP leadership has been pressured by its reform-minded lawmakers to soften its rigid policies toward Pyongyang.
• North Korea Requests Int'l Relief Aid
  The North Korean government, through state- controlled domestic media, on Sunday began to publicize the international aid it is receiving following Thursday's train explosion, a very unusual act in the reclusive society.
• Explosion to Prompt NK to Open Further
  By Shim Jae-yun Staff Reporter Experts here forecast the explosion in North Korea's Ryongchong railway station will likely prompt the reclusive nation to further open to the outside world and speed up efforts to resolve the standoff over its nuclear weapons program.
• BBC Uses False Photo on NK Explosion
  By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter The British Broadcasting Company (BBC) made an erroneous reporting over the train explosion in North Korea by posting an incorrect satellite photo showing huge clouds of black smoke billowing from the alleged blast site on its Website. The BBC explained Friday that the photo was taken 18 hours after the explosion in the northwest North Korean town of Ryongchon, but the black-and-white satellite image was later found to be taken after an air raid in Iraq. [media]
• KCNA Report on Explosion at Ryongchon Railway Station
  Pyongyang, April 24 (KCNA) -- The KCNA on April 24 released the following report as regards an explosion at Ryongchon Railway Station in North Phyongan Province, on April 22: An explosion occurred at Ryongchon Railway Station in North Phyongan Province on April 22 due to the electrical contact caused by carelessness during the shunting of wagons loaded with ammonium nitrate fertilizer and tank wagons.
  The investigation conducted so far shows that the damage is very serious. It is going on.
  The DPRK government is doing its utmost to recover from the damage caused by the accident as early as possible and help the living of the people in the afflicted area return to normal.
  It appreciates the willingness expressed by the governments of various countries and international bodies and organizations to render humanitarian assistance to the DPRK
• North Korea admits hundreds died and asks for help
  Jonathan Watts in Dandong Saturday April 24, 2004 The Guardian North Korea made a rare appeal to the international community for help yesterday as details began to emerge of the huge train explosion on Thursday which killed hundreds of people, injured thousands, and flattened more than 1,800 homes.
• Report: Trains Explode in DPRK, Thousands Dead or Injured
  Damage Is Very Serious: Pyongyang
  The official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on April 24 released the following report on an explosion at Ryongchon Railway Station in North Pyongan Province on April 22.
  An explosion occurred at Ryongchon Railway Station in North Pyongan Province on April 22 due to the electrical contact caused by carelessness during the shunting of wagons loaded with ammonium nitrate fertilizer and tank wagons. The investigation conducted so far shows that the damage is very serious. It is going on.
  The DPRK government is doing its utmost to recover from the damage caused by the accident as early as possible and help the living of the people in the afflicted area return to normal.
  It appreciates the willingness expressed by the governments of various countries and international bodies and organizations to render humanitarian assistance to the DPRK.
• US NGO Christian Friends of Korea asked to assist train explosion relief effort
• '54 dead' in North Korea blast
  Mark Oliver and agencies Friday April 23, 2004 At least 54 people have been killed in an explosion that damaged more than 8,000 homes around a train station in North Korea, the Red Cross told Reuters today. Speaking in Beijing, John Sparrow, a regional delegation spokesman for the International Federation of the Red Cross, gave the first substantial assessment of the damage from yesterday's explosion after talking to Red Cross officials at the scene. Some 1,850 homes were totally destroyed and 6,350 damaged in the blast, which was caused by trains carrying explosives, possibly for use in the mining industry, he said. Twelve public buildings were razed. Mr Sparrow said 54 people were dead and 1,249 injured but the death toll was expected rise. Earlier reports said as many as 3,000 people may have been killed. The explosion was at a rail station in the bustling town of Ryongchon, which is around 10 miles south of the border with China in the north of North Korea. The area immediately around the station was densely populated and built up. Initial reports suggest that two cargo trains, one carrying oil and the other some form of explosive material, had crashed. South Korean media has said the station was "obliterated" as if bombarded from above.
  Reports dismissed speculation about a possible assassination attempt.
• Explosion reported at rail station in North
  A huge explosion occurred at a North Korean train station on Wednesday, Yonhap News Agency reported, quoting Chinese sources. According to sources in Dandong, a Chinese city on the border with North Korea, the explosion took place at Ryongchon Station in North Pyeongan province, 50 kilometers (31 miles) south of Sinuiju. Two freight trains, each transporting petroleum and liquefied petroleum gas, collided around 1 p.m., the sources said.
• Up to 3,000 Killed, Injured in NK Railway Explosion
  By Kwak Seung-jin Staff reporter Two fuel trains collided and exploded at a station in a North Korean town Thursday afternoon, leaving up to 3,000 people killed or injured, South Korean officials said on Friday. The casualties were taken to hospitals, some even to the Chinese border city of Dandung
• Seoul Offers Relief for NK Train Accident
  By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter South Korea on Friday offered to help rescue efforts following a massive train explosion in North Korea, which reportedly flattened buildings and killed or injured more than 3,000 people
• NK Explosion Unlikely to Be Assassination Attempt: Experts
  By Reuben Staines Staff Reporter The devastating explosion at a North Korean train station, nine hours after its reclusive leader Kim Jong-il reportedly passed through on his way home from a secretive visit to China, was most likely a coincidence, experts in South Korea said on Friday.
• Kim Jong-il Stays Unhurt, Officials Say
  By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is known to be safe, despite the devastating blast at a railway station near the border with China, senior South Korean government officials said on Friday. ``He arrived in Pyongyang early in the morning, hours before the explosion which occurred at around 2 p.m. on Thursday,'' a high-level government official said. ``Therefore, it seems all but clear that he is safe now.'' Some 1,300 people were reportedly killed and injured when a train carrying fuel exploded at Ryongchon station, about nine hours after North Korea's reclusive leader, Kim, had passed through.
• At least 54 Killed, 1,249 Injured: Red Cross Officials
  At least 54 people died and 1,249 were wounded when two trains collided in North Korea, AFP reported from Beijing, quoting Red Cross officials Friday. ``According to preliminary figures, there are 54 dead and 1,249 injured,'' Red Cross official Niels Juel told AFP in Beijing. ``The North Korean Red Cross said the toll could increase.''
• Ryongchon Station Near Light Industry Complexes
  By Yoo Dong-ho Staff Reporter North Korea's Ryongchon railway station, where a massive explosion took place, is about just 20 kilometers from the Chinese border and north of the North's capital Pyongyang.
  The station is located at one of the North Korea's main railway lines connecting Pyongyang and Shinuju, the northern city bordering China. The accident will likely wreak havoc on the reclusive country's logistics and passenger carrying system. The station covers about 26 percent of the town's total logistics, mainly for corns, grains coals, construction materials and fisheries. A wide range of light industry complexes are concentrated near the station - small-and medium-sized textile plants, coal mine companies, shipbuilding yards and machinery firms.
• Huge Blast Reported in N. Korea
  Outside Sources Say Thousands May Be Victims of Fuel Train Accident By Anthony Faiola Washington Post Foreign Service Friday, April 23, 2004; Page A01 TOKYO, April 23 -- A massive explosion near a railroad station in North Korea on Thursday reportedly killed and injured hundreds, possibly thousands, of people, destroyed homes and administrative buildings and spewed debris for miles, according to U.S. and South Korean officials.
• N Korea blast kills 'at least 54'
  Aerial image shows buildings close to the railway line (DIGITALGLOBE) The International Red Cross says Thursday's huge train explosion in North Korea killed at least 54 people. In the first independent account of the disaster, Red Cross officials at the scene say more than 1,200 people were injured and 1,850 houses destroyed. There has been no official statement from North Korea, more than 24 hours after the catastrophic train accident at Ryongchon, 20km from China's border. However, aid agencies say North Korea is accepting their offers of help.
• Slowly, details emerge from North Korea blast
  James Brooke/NYT Friday, April 23, 2004 SEOUL The toll from a huge train blast at a North Korean railroad station was estimated Friday at between 54 and 150 dead and 1,249 injured. A total of 1,850 homes were leveled and 6,350 were damaged, according to the International Federation of the Red Cross in Beijing.
  According to a United Nations official today in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, the explosion was caused when two wagons filled with explosives on their way to a construction site hit live electrical wires.
  Worried about rail saboteurs in the past, the North Korean leader and his late father, Kim Il Sung, occasionally traveled hidden in one of three identical trains that would pass along the same route at different intervals.
• North Korea Formally Request International Help
  Fri Apr 23, 2004 11:34 AM ET GENEVA (Reuters) - North Korea has formally asked for international help to deal with the aftermath of a train explosion which killed a large number of people and razed a large part of the town of Ryongchon, the United Nations said on Friday. The U.N.'s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that the formal request had been received on Friday afternoon.
• Thousands feared killed in North Korea train collison
  AP Thursday, April 22, 2004 SEOUL, South Korea Two fuel trains collided and exploded in a North Korean train station near the Chinese border Thursday, according to South Korean media, which reported large numbers of casualties. One television station said 3,000 people were believed killed or injured. . The North Korean leader, Kim Jong Il, reportedly had passed through the station as he returned from China nine hours earlier. It was not clear what caused the crash, or if it was related to Kim's journey. The trains were carrying oil and liquefied petroleum gas, media reported. . The crash reportedly took place at the town of Ryongchon, 12 miles from China. North Korean authorities declared a ''state of emergency'' in the area, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported. . In another sign of the accident's magnitude, the secretive North Korean government cut international phone lines to prevent news of the collision from leaking across its borders, Yonhap said, citing no sources. . The number killed or injured could reach 3,000, South Korea's all-news cable channel, YTN, reported, citing unidentified sources on the Chinese side of the border. . ''The area around Ryongchon station has turned into ruins as if it were bombarded,'' Yonhap quoted witnesses as saying. ''Debris from the explosion soared high into the sky and drifted to Sinuju,'' a North Korean town on the border with China, it said. . .
• Railway Explosion Occurs in N. Korea
  2004/04/22 23:17 KST (ATTN: UPDATES with Seoul's confirmation of blast in N. Korea ) SEOUL, April 22 (Yonhap) -- South Korea confirmed Thursday that a large explosion occurred near a train station in North Korea, causing an unknown number of deaths. "We've obtained the information that there was a large explosion near Ryongchon Station," a defense ministry official said, asking to remain anonymous. "We have yet to find out the cause of the incident, the kind of explosion and how many died." Earlier in the day, Chinese sources said there was a large explosion at the train station, 50 kilometers north of Pyongyang, after two fuel transport trains collided.
• Many feared dead in North Korea 'blast'
  Associated Press Thursday April 22, 2004 As many as 3,000 people were killed or injured today when two trains carrying oil and liquefied petroleum gas collided and exploded in a North Korean train station, South Korean media have reported. The explosion was said to have occurred at about 1pm local time (0500 BST) at a station in the town of Ryongchon, around 30 miles south of the Chinese border, in northern North Korea.
• China to offer assistance to DPRK
  www.chinaview.cn 2004-04-22 20:49:19 BEIJING, April 22 (Xinhuanet) -- China decided to offer assistanceto the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) during DPRK leader Kim Jong Il's visit to China, Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan said here Thursday at a regular press conference. Kong said China has repeated several times that DPRK people arefacing difficulties while making great achievements in domestic construction. China decided to offer assistance to the DPRK in a view to strengthening the traditional friendship between the two peoples. The amount of the assistance is limited and the two countries are still discussing the details, Kong stressed.
• Crop and Food Supply Assessment Mission to the DPRK
  by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization & UN World Food Programme
  April 13, 2004 DPR Korea continued its recovery in agricultural production that started in 2001, with this year's food production showing some improvement over the previous three years.
  The main factors behind this continued recovery include favourable weather conditions especially at the beginning of the season, a relatively low incidence of crop pests and diseases, increased application of fertilizer provided through international assistance, improved irrigation facilities in the main Cereal Bowl region of the country due to completion of the Kechan-Taesong Lake canal funded by the OPEC, improved availability of electricity for irrigation pumping stations, and enhanced mechanization resulting from greater availability of fuel and spare parts.
  The 2003/04 cereal production, including potatoes in cereal equivalent, is forecast at 4.16 million tonnes, the best harvest over the last nine years, and 4.7 percent larger than last year's revised estimate.
  Despite the recovery over the last three years, domestic production still falls well below the minimum food needs and the country will again have to depend on substantial external food assistance as its capacity to import commercially remains highly constrained.
• OCH DPRK Situation Report March 04
  The most comprehensive, current and authoritative description of the aid/food situation
• CARITAS 45TH VISIT TO THE DPRK
  (17 TO 28 FEBRUARY 2004) TRIP REPORT BY KATHI ZELLWEGER, CARITAS-HONG KONG
  * For the average North Korean, life is a grim struggle for survival. It is important that Caritas puts the welfare of the people first and does everything possible to ease the suffering of the North Korean people. * Continuing the humanitarian aid program, assisting with long-term interventions (geared to gradually shift towards development assistance) and finding ways to support peace building and reconciliation initiatives will remain the key components of Caritas' work in North Korea. * A new Caritas appeal will be launched in April. Caritas-Hong Kong hopes that despite donor fatigue and humanitarian needs in many other parts of the world, the solidarity with the North Korean people will continue. There is hunger for food and peace.
• Humanitarians must avoid becoming tools of power
  The gap between aid to Iraq and central Africa is driven by politics Martin Woollacott Friday April 2, 2004 The Guardian In other instances, like North Korea, huge resources are being expended in humanitarian aid, but that aid has not reached many of those for whom it was intended because, MSF says, it has largely gone to the party and the army. The humanitarian label is attached to a policy aimed at calming and containing the North Korean regime - a policy which may be rational but, says MSF, let's not pretend it has anything much to do with feeding ordinary people, who have continued to starve to death in large numbers. [Diversion] [Black]
• OPEC Fund to Make a Donor Grant to Improve Tap Water Supply and Sanitary Facilities in North Korea
  The OPEC Fund announced on March 16 that it will give a donor grant in the amount of US$250,000 to the UNICEF-led WES (Water and Environment Sanitation) program that is aimed at spreading the tap water supply and keeping the sanitary facilities repaired in North Korea. Under the program, the NK's underdeveloped areas in the Eastern and Northern provinces will have improved sanitary facilities and they will be supplied with safer and purer tap water.
• 6 of 10 Support Assistance to NK
  By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter Six of every 10 South Korean people believe the current level of government assistance to North Korea is adequate or even insufficient. According to an opinion poll conducted by the Media Research along with The Korea Times, 46.1 percent of the 1,000 adults surveyed said the government's aids to the reclusive North should be maintained at the current level. Another 16.9 percent said the assistance should be increased. But, 32.7 percent of respondents said government aid should be reduced
• Food Donations Down in N. Korea
  By TED ANTHONY The Associated Press Tuesday, March 30, 2004; 12:58 AM BEIJING - North Koreans are foraging for wild grasses to augment spring food supplies as the U.N. World Food Program shores up a shortfall in foreign donations by borrowing grain from the country's insular government, a WFP official said Monday.
  Gerald Bourke, a spokesman for the U.N. agency in Beijing, said there was "insufficient" food coming in for WFP to feed hungry North Koreans. But he said the situation was a bit less dire than in February, when cereals were cut off from all but 85,000 of the 4 million women, children and elderly people who are "core beneficiaries" on the agency's rolls.

• Seoul to Provide 200,000 Tons of Fertilizer to NK Next Month
  By Shim Jae-yun Staff Reporter The government has decided to provide a total of 200,000 tons of fertilizer to North Korea beginning mid-April, in time for the planting season, the Unification Ministry said on Monday
• Koreans from U.S. aiding kids in North
  Park Jun-gu, 57, a Korean businessman living in the United States, has donated more than 24,000 cans of powdered milk for children in North Korea. Mr. Park, who is the president of the New York branch of the Advisory Council on Democratic and Peaceful Unification, collected more than $90,000 from Korean residents in New York to buy the milk
• US-DPRK Village Wind Power Pilot Project
  wednesday, may 15, 2002 The US-DPRK Village Wind Power Pilot Project is the first attempt by a US non-governmental organization to work side-by-side with North Koreans in cooperative development.
• NK Death Tolls 'Exaggerated'
  A South Korean researcher on Sunday said conventional estimates of deaths caused by starvation in North Korea are too high. Lee Suk of the Korea Institute for National Unification said in a study that starvation cost the lives of up to 1.2 million North Koreans in the mid- and late-1990s, dismissing as unrealistic estimates of death tolls of 2-3 million. He claimed that starvation deaths in 1996 to 2000 could be as low as 25,000 to 69,000, while his maximum range was between 250,000 and 1.2 million. Lee cited a lack of data for the wide range of the estimates.
• UNICEF Chief Calls for More Aid for N. Korean Children
  By Kim Rahn Staff Reporter ``South Korea, a country which once was a recipient of international aid, is now required to give help in improving the life of children in North Korea,'' Carol Bellamy, executive director of United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said in a news conference held downtown Seoul on Wednesday.
  The South Korean government has paid about $620 million to help North Korean people since 1995, and has pledged $1 million through UNICEF for nutrition improvement work for North's children in April.
• UNICEF Head Visits North Korea
• N Korea children's lives 'better'
  The UN children's agency Unicef says efforts to save and improve the lives of North Korean children are working despite continued political isolation. Unicef head Carol Bellamy said co-operation with the authorities has boosted immunisation and given better access to medicines and clean water. But she said the country was still suffering serious economic decline. Many youngsters remain extremely vulnerable to illness and deaths that are preventable, she added. Unicef estimates that about 70,000 North Korean children are at mortal risk from severe malnutrition. Ms Bellamy, who has just returned from a trip to North Korea, said the situation was much better than when she visited in 1997. "There are enormous challenges here," she said. "But we are seeing real results for children and that's what counts. It's vital that we stay here and expand our work. "I'm convinced that by helping children survive and thrive, we're contributing to a stronger, more peaceful Korean peninsula." Schools programme She said she had seen vast improvements in the immunisation programme against basic diseases, with 80% of children vaccinated compared with 35% in 1987. Pyongyang had now opened up 162 of 200 counties to Unicef, she added. But the fund was moving beyond providing food and medicine and looking to improve the quality of education in North Korea, Ms Bellamy added. She said the new three-year programme was a "little breakthrough", which would attempt to bring "a little more reality" to the country's highly ideological school curriculum. Unicef North Korea representative Pierrette Vu Thi told Reuters news agency that under the scheme children would be taught about HIV/Aids, hygiene and children's rights. Published: 2004/03/17 11:49:00 GMT
• N.K. desperately needs clean water`
  For residents of most rural towns in North Korea, water is only available two to four hours a day, and the quality of that water supply is visibly terrible, the executive director of UNICEF said yesterday.
• UN details North Korea's woes
  Samuel Len The New York Times Wednesday, March 17, 2004 Poor energy sources called root of many problems SEOUL Shortages of food, energy, clean water and other necessities continue to haunt in North Korea, Unicef said on Wednesday. North Korea has been depending on foreign aid to feed its 22.5 million people since the mid-1990s as the end of subsidies from former Communist allies and years of bad weather ravaged its state-run economy. The situation has worsened since the North Korean government admitted in 2002 to pursuing a nuclear weapons program that violated international agreements. That admission prompted the United States and its allies to halt shipments of free oil.
• Kim Yong Nam Meets Executive Director of UNICEF
  Pyongyang, March 15 (KCNA) -- Kim Yong Nam, president of the Presidium of the DPRK Supreme People's Assembly, met Carol Bellamy, executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund, and her party and conversed with them in a friendly atmosphere at the Mansudae Assembly Hall today. Present there were Choe Su Hon, vice- minister of Foreign Affairs, and Pierrete Vu Thi, representative of the Office of the UNICEF in Pyongyang
• OCHA Bulletin February 2004
  The latest report from UN agencies in Pyongyang
• Gov't Planning to Provide Fertilizers to N. Korea From April
  South Korea plans to provide 200,000 tons of fertilizers to North Korea this spring,
• Austria to Provide 1,000 Tons of Food Aid to North Korea
• Trade with the NK Sharply Increased in Yanbian in 2003
  Yanbian province, the self-governing district in China, has recorded a steep increase in its trade volume with North Korea in the year 2003, especially in the export area of grain. According to the Yanji customhouse, the total export volume of grain from Yanbian to North Korea in 2003 amounted to 55,969 tons reaching its highest level. The figure is, also, a meaning 12.4% growth from that of the same period in 2002.
• N. Korea Decides to Provide Food for Distribution by WFP
  North Korea has reportedly decided to loan food for distribution by an international relief agency working in the country as part of efforts to help feed its hunger-stricken people. The move allows the U.N. World Food Program (WFP) to resume cereal distribution to most of its more than four million core beneficiaries in the North, namely children, women and elderly people, said the WFP's latest report on North Korea. "This partial resumption of stalled distributions is attributable to the DPRK government's positive response to a WFP request for a loan as well as a number of other urgent initiatives to meet the immediate shortfall," the WFP said. DPRK stands for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, North Korea's official name. The U.N. relief agency added that North Korea has agreed to make available 25,000 tons of cereals from the country's limited stocks, and cereal distribution to 2.7 million core beneficiaries will resume and continue until the expected arrival of confirmed contributions in April and May. The U.N. body said it has to return an equal amount of food to the North. The North's move came two weeks after Masood Hyder, the WFP representative for North Korea, warned that more than four million core beneficiaries will be left without food unless aid shipments are made by April. The WFP voiced concern that distribution cuts could again affect one million core beneficiaries from June, and by September the number might rise to 2.9 million. The agency also said three noodle factories in the cities of Sinuiju, Hamheung and Wonsan stopped production recently due to lack of wheat, and two biscuit factories in Pyongyang and one in Sinuiju will face the same problem by the end of February. The WFP is seeking 485,000 tons of commodities valued at US$171 million for North Korea this year. So far, only 140,000 tons have been secured and much less has been delivered, the WFP representative said. Early this month, New Zealand donated $250,000 to the cash-strapped WFP emergency operation in North Korea. The impoverished North has been relying on outside handouts since 1995 to help feed its 22 million people. Its economy was devastated by years of mismanagement and natural disasters.

• Unlikely Partners in the Quest for Juche: Humanitarian Aid Agencies in North Korea
  Edward P. Reed August 10th, 2004 This special report by Edward P. Reed, the Associate Director of the Center for East Asian Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, was presented at the 2004 Workshop: "Towards a Peaceful Resolution with North Korea: Crafting a New International Engagement Framework" in Washington D.C. The workshop, which ran from February 12-13, 2004, was hosted by the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP) and the Korea Economic Institute (KEI), in cooperation with the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). Reed argues that, "aid agencies must negotiate interventions that are development-oriented, while at same time employing an operational style that builds the institutional and personal trust on which acceptable levels of accountability are based."
  The human suffering in North Korea today is the result of a failed system operating in a hostile international environment. Humanitarian aid organizations cannot solve this problem. Only sustained, multi-faceted, systemic change based on political decisions in Pyongyang can set North Korea on the path to building an economy that can meet the basic needs of its people. Change in the international political environment, especially reduction of tensions with the United States and acceleration in South-North Korean rapprochement, are needed to encourage and facilitate this process. So, what is the role of aid agencies in this constricted and wholly politicized situation?
• North Korea : Good News and Bad
  ACT International (Action by Churches Together), to which Christian World Service belongs, has been providing humanitarian assistance to the people of the Democratic Republic of North Korea since a flood in mid-1995 devastated the country. The flood marked the beginning of an ongoing "emergency", because the country simply could not cope with the natural disasters that followed. The collapse of one of North Korea's greatest allies, the Soviet Union, had already dealt the country's economy a severe blow, and with 22 million people to support, the government of this isolated nation could no longer sustain its population. Millions of North Koreans today rely on the food aid being sent to their country to survive.
  Late last year a shipment of 420 metric tons of refined wheat flour, donated by ACT International's US-based members, was destined for baby homes, children's centres and maternity hospitals. The flour was enough to bake some 132,000 loaves of bread. Although the actual humanitarian situation has seen some improvement, especially in the nutritional status of the people in general, there is still a need to supplement many people's diets. To this end a bakery in the capital, Pyongyang, which is supported by ACT International, uses donated flour to bake high-protein biscuits. A good harvest in 2002, combined with a good global humanitarian response, caused a significant reduction in malnutrition rates. However, "the crisis is not over" is the clear message from the UN's World Food Program (WFP) - which in fact is now experiencing a three-month gap in the supply of donated grain, right in the middle of a severe winter.
  ACT International also works with the Korean Christian Federation (KCF), which represents the Protestant churches in North Korea. The KCF Bongsoo factory in Pyongyang also uses donated flour to make noodles. Another activity supported by ACT International is a goat-farm project in the northeastern part of the country. It is hoped the recently- introduced system of private food production and direct marketing to the public will increase food supplies in general. In this instance, the product is cheese made from the goats' milk. Finally, ACT International cooperates with UNICEF and the UN World Health Organization to provide raw materials for a pharmaceutical factory.
• OCHA Bulletin January 2004
• NZ's donation to World Food Programme for North Korea welcomed
  Rev Don Borrie, Chairman of the NZ-DPRK Society welcomes the NZ government's donation of US$250,000 to the World Food Programme activities in DPR Korea
• 2 nations pledge food as aid to North Korea
  Responding to a World Food Program appeal for more aid to North Korea, New Zealand and Germany have said that they would provide additional supplies, AFP reported yesterday. New Zealand will donate $256,000 to the UN relief agency to help the famine-stricken communist country, Prime Minister Helen Clark reportedly said. Germany has offered 3 million euros ($3.84 million) to the UN operations in the North, the German aid ministry said.
• Food Shortages Plague N. Korea
  [Aid weapon] Government's Stance in Nuclear Talks Likely to Affect Efforts to End Crisis
  By Edward Cody Washington Post Foreign Service Saturday, February 14, 2004; Page A22
  A severe food shortage has crippled the U.N. feeding program that sustains North Korea's most vulnerable and undernourished people, according to Masood Hyder, the U.N. humanitarian aid coordinator and World Food Program representative in Pyongyang.
  "Certainly, the current political climate does have a bearing," Masood said in a telephone interview from Pyongyang, the North Korean capital. Japan, for instance, used to provide 300,000 tons of food a year but has stopped shipments because of disagreement with Pyongyang over Japanese citizens abducted and taken to North Korea for training as spies in the 1970s and 1980s, the diplomat said.
  South Korea and China run government-to-government aid programs for North Korea, outside the World Food Program, but the level of their current shipments is not known. Masood estimated that such aid is roughly equal to the multilateral aid administered by the U.N. agency for the neediest people.
• NZ to give $370,000 in aid to North Korea
  Miss Clark made her announcement on a week that the Council for International Development (CID) launched a campaign to increase New Zealand's contribution to overseas aid. New Zealand currently contributes only 0.22 per cent of gross national income (GNI) to overseas aid and the campaign aims to increase that to 0.7 per cent by 2015. - NZPA
• New Zealand supports North Korean food programme
  Rt. Hon Helen Clark 13 February 2004
  Prime Minister Helen Clark said today that New Zealand would contribute around $370,000 (US$250,000) to the United Nations World Food Programme's operations in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
• NZ-DPRK Society asks NZ PM to support WFP
  Dear Ms. Clark, In view of the World Food Programmes' public declaration that they are being obliged to severely restrict food aid to the most needy in the DPR of Korea, on behalf of our Society I ask that the New Zealand Government make an emergency grant to the WFP DPRK aid project. In yesterday's appeal, which I am enclosing, the WFP Representative said that "Over four million core beneficiaries - the most vulnerable children, women and elderly people - are now deprived of very vital rations."
  In previous occasions the Government has responded to calls for an emergency response to a crisis in the basic food requirements in the DPRK. Given that this is in the middle of severe winter cold Korean people are now at their most vulnerable. Apart from donations of cereals, such as that coming from the US, the EU, Australia and Canada, I feel that New Zealand should be in a position to provide dried milk powder.
  Don Borrie, Chairman
• GROUP URGES FOOD AID FOR NORTH KOREA
  
  Published: February 9, 2004
  BEIJING (AP) -- The World Food Program issued an emergency appeal Monday for aid for North Korea, saying the agency's supplies have nearly run out and it is cutting off food to almost all the 6.5 million people that it feeds there. WFP will be able to feed only about 100,000 North Koreans -- mostly women and children -- over the next two months, said Masood Hyder, the U.N. agency's representative in the North.
• WFP FOOD DELIVERIES PLUMMET LEAVING MILLIONS OF NORTH KOREANS MALNOURISHED
  9 February 2004
  BEIJING - With its cereals stocks in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea all but exhausted and little in the pipeline, the World Food Programme today called for urgent international assistance to help feed 6.5 million of the country's hungriest people.
  "We are scraping the bottom of the barrel," Masood Hyder, WFP Representative for the DPRK, said in Beijing. "Over four million core beneficiaries - the most vulnerable children, women and elderly people - are now deprived of very vital rations. It's the middle of the harsh Korean winter and they need more food, not less."
  Donors have recently pledged contributions amounting to some 77,000 tonnes*. However, little of this food will arrive before April meaning that for the next two months, almost four million people will be deprived of cereals, which constitute a large share of the basic 'survival' ration. Only 75,000 child-bearing women and 8,000 children in orphanages and hospitals may receive WFP cereal distributions in February and March.
  "Many of those we cannot help are only consuming two-thirds of the calories they need," Hyder said. "Unless they get help very soon, the damage could be irreparable."
  The funding crisis is also forcing the UN agency to drastically scale down food-for-work activities designed to support more than two million North Koreans this year, while WFP-assisted factories producing enriched foods for the malnourished are threatened with closure owing to a shortage of donor-supplied ingredients.
  Reduced donations have left WFP, by far the largest aid agency in the country, unable to feed many of its targeted recipients for much of the past two years. "Painstaking gains made in improving nutritional standards since the late 1990s risk being reversed," Hyder said. "That must not happen."
• U.S. Says Distribution, Monitoring of N.K. Food Aid Improved
  [Diversion]

• UNDP in DPRK
• Pacesetters in Potato Farming Meet
  Pak Pong Ju read out leader Kim Jong Il's famous work "On Bringing about a Signal Turn in Potato Farming" published on October 1,Juche 87 (1998).
• WHO Official Calls for More Aid to Improve Health Care in NK
  ``North Korea took strong measures against SARS by virtually closing off its borders for three months, but that is because it is aware of how weak the nation' health structure is.
• Potato Farming in DPRK
  Potato tissue culturing factories built in different parts of the country are paying off and advanced methods have been introduced in potato farming. What is an immediate task is to expand potato fields, increase the potato production considerably, process the products in an industrial way and boost the production of potato foodstuffs.
  When the task is carried out, a great progress will be made in solving the food shortage in Korea.
• Pyeongyang cuisine: Forget about famine
• Guide Hails N. Korea Dining Amidst Hunger
  [Economic reforms]
• Food Crisis in N. Korea Likely to Peak in Next Two Months: WFP
• Food aid will be cut in North, agency says
• OCHA DPR Korea Situation Bulletin for December 2003
• Amnesty Blasts North Korea on Food Report
• Food aid provided for North's children
• Aid cut off to millions in North Korea
• WFP URGES SUPPORT FOR 6.5 MILLION HUNGRY IN NORTH KOREA
  11 December 2003
• In North Korea: First, Save Lives
  In an article first published in the Washington Post, UN Humanitarian Coordinator in North Korea, Masood Hyder says that now is not the moment for the international community to give up on aid to North Korea, just when cautious changes are gradually emerging.
• Humanitarian Issue Put on Backburner in North Korea

• OPEC Fund supports training program for hospital technicians with US$37,000 grant
  July 1, 2003, Vienna, Austria

• OCHA Bulletin #2, 2003
  April 2003

not updated yet

• Food aid from EU
• Christian Group Donates 2.1 BIn Won Worth of Aid to N.K.
  [Religion]
• North Korea: More Food Is Needed
  Another 325,000 tons of food is needed this year to reach the World Food Program's minimum goal of 512,000 tons for North Korea. "Deliveries have fallen well short of needs," the organization said. The appeal cited "a sharp slide in donations," beginning last year. Rick Corsino, the program's North Korea director, said aid had declined "during the country's harsh winter months when caloric needs increase." The United States has pledged 40,000 tons with another 60,000 tons contingent on the World Food Program's ability to monitor distributions.
• Director of UNICEF East Asia and Pacific Regional Office arrives here
• Seoul May Pledge More Food Aid to NK Soon
  [SK aid NK] [United Nations]
• United States decides to donate food to DPRK
  [US aid] [KCNA]

• US to Send 100,000 tons of Aid to NK
  [Friction] [US aid] [Australia]
• The State of the World Report on Hunger from Africa to North Korea
  U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Senator Richard G. Lugar, Chairman, Tuesday, February 25, 2003
• U.S. To Resume Food Aid To North Korea, At A Reduced Level
  [Aid weapon][US Aid]
• U.S. Food Donation For North Korea
  [Aid weapon] Press Statement, Richard Boucher, Spokesman Seoul, South Korea February 25, 2003
• U.S. To Resume Food Aid To North Korea After 2-Year (sic) Halt
  {James Dao}[Aid weapon] SEOUL, South Korea, Feb. 25 - The State Department announced today that it will resume shipments of food aid to North Korea after a two-month hiatus but intends to reduce its donations this year by between 35 percent to 75 percent from last year's totals.
• U.S. may resume aid to North, Powell says
  [Aid weapon] [WFP]
• North Korea to receive food aid from US
  [US Aid] [Aid weapon] [Sanctions]
• Child Nutrition Survey Shows Improvements In DPRK, But UN Agencies Concerned About Holding Onto Gains
• October 2002 Nutrition Survey tables
• October 2002 Nutrition Survey report
• N.K. Makes All-Out Effort to Solve Food Shortage Problem
  {KOTRA) [Innovation] [Agriculture] [Military economy] North Korea has recently been striving to renovate and maintain relevant facilities for raising chickens, catfish, potatoes and ostriches, in a bid to resolve its chronic food shortage.
• OCHA Bulletin #1, 2003
  December 2002 -