Thursday, March 31, 2011
North Korea food aid
On the news a few days ago I saw a struggle between Baengnyeongdo residents and activists over food aid being dropped into North Korea by balloons. I considered why this is happening, and how people could oppose a humanitarian act like giving food to the hungry. The reason for the conflict has to do with what is traveling along with the food-anti-North Korea leaflets. Curious about the details, I looked up what the issue of the leaflets was all about on the Internet. I discovered that South Korean had provided the food aid to North Korea for the past two presidential administrations.Then Lee Myung-bak administration significantly cut aid to the North Korea over the issue of nuclear weapons. Even now, humanitarian food aid for the starving people of the North is not completely forbidden. However,Europe NGO announced that they would not futher support food aid to North Korea. The reasons for this are many, but mainly concerned nuclear arms in the North. They also disputed the North's claim that there is a food shortage in the nation. Furthermore, they said that the ruling Workers' party didn't distribute the food to the people. It seems like a simple and good idea to give food to the starving people, but life is never that simple. So,I can understand the residents of Imjingak, Baengnyeongdo and the other affected areas. They fear retaliatory attackes on their cities from the North because of the propaganda activities. Should there be a law passed forbidding the inclusion of propaganda in humanitarian food aid? It is a difficult issue to decide. What do you think?
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I can not believe that North Korean doesn't suffer from food shortage. As I know, North Korea is a lot poorer than we think. I understand that South Koreans' fear that the food we provide is only used for the ruling workers' party. However, South Korea throw away enourmous amount of rice every year to keep the price when people having the same culture are starving. This is very ridiculous. If we see people dying of hunger before our eyes, can we just ask to stop the food aid for all the political reasons? I can't.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry I might not make this clear. As shoong said that it is true North Korea suffers from food shortage. But, Some including Europe NGO are skeptical that North Korea exaggerate its food shortage for other reasons. Following the update news, the Ministry of Unification reported that 70 percent of 1,000 South Koreans are against food aid unless North Korea makes an appologize for the isse of Cheonan warship and Yeonpyeong Island.
ReplyDeleteI know that you mostly wrote about food aid and related propaganda activities, but after reading your post a slightly different but relevant idea came to mind. I blogged about humanitarian intervention and whether or not it can be justified. And I was wondering in the case of North Korea, is it possible to say that by depriving its citizens of food and hence causing widespread starvation (or any other actions by the government that limits freedom or results in coercion), North Korea is infringing on fundamental human rights of its citizens? If so, should humanitarian intervention take place to end such infringement of human rights? If North Korea is not violating fundamental human rights of its citizens, shouldn't it at least have the responsibility to do what is necessary to receive more help from the international community rather than continuing to stay a hostile country? A lot of questions like these came to mind after having read your post. But I think whether it is being accepting of propaganda activities or something else, North Korea has the responsibility to protect its citizens and guarantee them their fundamental rights as human beings, which I think is not the case in North Korea today.
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