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North Korea hunger

Last reviewed: 10-07-2008

THE SECRET FAMINE


North Korea has spent more than five decades cut off from the world. It is so secretive that no one knows how many people died in its famine of the 1990s, although analysts have estimated it killed 3-5 percent of the population. Now it faces another humanitarian crisis after a poor harvest that has caused food prices to skyrocket.

  • Up to 6 million in need of help
  • Hit by floods and rising prices
  • Relies heavily on international aid

    The Stalinist state has in recent years depended on aid from China, South Korea and United Nations agencies to feed millions of people. It blames natural disasters for its hunger woes but observers say catastrophic economic mismanagement is also responsible.

    Agricultural experts warn that North Korea faces its worst food shortfalls since the 1990s famine with high grain prices, flood damage from 2007 and political wrangling with South Korea taking their toll.

    The U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) has estimated up to 6 million people need help.

    In mid-2008, the United States began its first bilateral assistance to North Korea in eight years after Pyongyang agreed to relax restrictions on aid agencies' ability to monitor distribution. Delivery of the aid will be overseen by the WFP and five aid agencies.

    South Korea has traditionally provided major food aid to the North. But the flow stopped when President Lee Myung-bak took office in early 2008. He says aid should be dependent on how well the North abides by an international nuclear deal.

    Food shortages and human rights abuses have prompted tens of thousands to risk their lives trying to escape across the border into China.

    KEY FACTS


    Total population 23.9 million (Source: U.N. Department of Economic and Social Affairs Population Division, 2006)
    Famine death estimates 220,000 (Source: Democratic People's Republic of Korea's government, DPRK)
    2.5 million (Andrew Natsios, former head of the U.S. Agency for International Development)
    600,000 - 1 million (Marcus Noland, Institute for International Economics)
    No estimate ever given by World Food Programme (WFP)
    Chronic malnutrition under six years old 37 percent (DPRK/UNICEF/WFP, 2004)
    Grain deficit 1.4 million tonnes (Source: Korea Rural Economic Institute, 2007)
    Total targeted by WFP country operation 1.9 million people (Source: WFP)
    Total targeted by WFP flood response in 2007 215,000 people (Source: WFP)
    WFP donors for North Korea United States, Japan, South Korea, European Union, Australia, Italy, Germany, Canada, Sweden, Russia, Ireland and Norway.
    North Korea's military spending 15.9 percent of budget (Finance Minister, 2005)

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    Christians and human rights activists hold a protest against Beijing's policy toward North Korean defectors in Seoul August 25, 2008. The protesters congratulated the success of the Beijing Olympics and demanded ...


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