“The Food Insecurity of North Korea” read the headline on the NPR website last summer. When I saw it, I was reminded of the reporting I did in the late 1990s, during North Korea’s last severe famine. As many as 2 million people might have starved to death in the 1990s; the true number — hidden by the repressive, secretive regime — can’t be known.
In the 1990s, Catholic Relief Service, the relief and development arm of the U.S. Catholic bishops was active in feeding North Koreans. Much of the aid was funneled through Caritas Hong Kong and the program at that time was coordinated by Kathi Zellweger, who made dozens of trips to North Korea. She told me in April 1999 that “hunger is the everyday reality of North Koreans.”
“The reality is pretty grim,” Zellweger told me. The situation has improved – grain production today is double what it was in the 1990s — but according the reporting from NPR, “The reality in North Korea remains bleak.”
Aid and development experts say North Korea is still unable to feed all of its population. The reasons are numerous:
- North Korea is mountainous and drought prone; arable land is scarce.
- The country’s farmers lack modern equipment, technology and knowledge.
- Thirty percent of food has to be imported, much through foreign aid, but funding for aid programs has been getting scarce (See NPR on a report from the U.N.’s World Food Programme.) because of sanctions imposed on the country. Another U.N. report in late 2017 said Two in five North Koreans are undernourished and more than 70 percent of the population relies on food aid.
- Food insecurity is also exacerbated by the corruption inherent in North Korean political structures.
All this has been on my mind as I listen to news stories about President Donald Trump meets North Korea’s Kim Jong Un in Hanoi, Vietnam, these next couple of days.
Here are two stories I filed in 1999.
- Monitoring team oversees food aid to ravaged North Korea, March 19, 1999
- Aid workers urge world to help North Korea, April 23, 1999
Dennis Coday 