A disastrous harvest in 2009 rendered the North Korean government and officials to make a recent response regarding the South Korean offer of 10,000 tons of food aid to feed the burgeoning hungry. A resounding “yes” in acceptance to this amount in aid, seen as somewhat historical, as the last several years had brought a steady deterioration in relations and peace talks between the two nations.
Analysts who have closely followed and reported upon North-South relations marked a distinctly different set of feelings differentiating the frank warmth of the South’s “Sunshine Policy” and melting of frosty relations in the 1990s under former South Korean president Kim Dae-Jung, with support from the Clinton Administration. The past two years of soured relations had swung drastically to the other side of the political pendulum, with multi-lateral talks ending in stalemates with little accomplished.
Prior to February 2008, when President Lee discontinued unconditional aid to the North due to its involvement in nuclear testing, the South had steadily given more than hundreds of thousands of food aid to the North. North Korea had been dependent on foreign food aid since a drastic famine killed hundreds of thousands of people in the 1990s.
It is believed that the harsh international sanctions, imposed upon North Korea which followed missile and nuclear testing last year, have contributed to the nation’s marked poverty.
North Korea has also imposed harsher penalties upon citizens attempting to flee the country’s borders, according to a UN official reporting on the matter.
The UN World Food Program reported as of September 2009, approximately one-third of the country’s women and children were malnourished. They estimated that the country would fall short 1.8 million tons of food aid that is needed to adequately feed the country’s citizens.
Posted by Patricia Lee.
