U.S. Food Aid on the Way to North Korea?
Here’s what the Financial Times is reporting today:
Washington will supply 400,000 tonnes via the World Food Programme while US non-governmental organisations will distribute another 100,000 tonnes. President George W. Bush is expected to approve the deal “within days,” according to one official. [Financial Times, Demetri Sevastopulo]
That probably means that at least the 400,000 tons of WFP aid will be channeled through the North Korean Public Distribution System, which has become infamous for diverting aid from less privileged people to the the security forces and the elite. Using the regime’s own distribution system is contrary to the standard practice for humanitarian relief operations everywhere. But again, North Korea has had exceptional success at making itself an exception to every rule of behavior that civilization has written.
US officials said North Korea had agreed to provide unprecedented access to monitors to ensure the food reached the population and not just elites. Pyongyang will allow random inspections and more monitors into the country than under previous aid programmes.
The mechanism would also allow “port to mouth” inspections to protect against the siphoning off of food. The first shipment of 50,000 tonnes is expected to arrive in North Korea by early June, according to officials.
In principle, I favor food aid for the North Korean people notwithstanding the behavior of their rulers, so long as distribution is transparent and verifiably tracks need. As for the “unprecedented” access by the monitors, I’ll reserve judgment, although I don’t begin with a deep reservoir of trust in the North Korean PDS, our State Department, or the FT’s particularly biased coverage. Some specific things I’ll want to know:
* In what form is the food being given? You can feed many more people corn, barley, millet than rice for the same amount of money, but rice is the preferred food of the elite. If we’re buying rice, it’s our first bad sign.
* How much of the food is being distributed through the North Korean PDS? The PDS is infamous for diversion and political discrimination.
* What is the geographic distribution of the aid delivery? North Korea’s infrastructure is so bad that there is no practical means to transport food delivered to Pyongyang or Nampo onward to such such needy areas as Chongjin and Hamhung to the North and East. There are needy areas near Pyongyang this year, but if the food is only being delivered to that area, it’s probably just a crude price support for the markets that the elite now depend on.
* Finally, am I correct to suppose that North Korea’s neediest people of all will once again be excluded from this arrangement?
As I have stated before, this year’s food crisis is exceptional in that the elite have also lost much of their food security. That means that we have unprecedented leverage to negotiate truly open and transparent distribution that reaches all of the people of North Korea, not just some. I truly hope that we haven’t blown that opportunity, but my educated pessimism tells me that we’ve probably just done exactly that.