North Korean Famine
The North Korean famine (also known as the Arduous March or the March of Tribulation) was a famine in North Korea which began in the early 1990s. Estimates state that, from a population of approximately 22 million, between 900,000 and 3.5 million people died from starvation or hunger-related illnesses, with the deaths peaking in 1997.
Beginning of the famine
The causes of the North Korean famine were complex, though it may be largely attributed to a series of environmental crises. In the 1980s and 1990s, the North Korean economy relied heavily upon favorable trading terms with the Soviet Union; following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, North Korea entered a period of internal industrial decline, from which it has yet to fully recover. This meant that North Korea was unable to continue to fuel its input-heavy agricultural system, and food production went into decline. North Korea also experienced severe flooding, meaning much of the country's limited farmland was unusable. Due to the country's reclusive nature, it simply did not have the foreign currency reserves necessary to supplement domestic food production with imports.
In 1992, the North Korean government launched the "Let's Eat Two Meals Per Day Campaign" in an attempt to cut down food consumption. By 1994, people in some remote areas could not get food for days at a time, despite being issued the usual rationing coupons. As infrastructure throughout the country was collapsing, the distribution of food was breaking down and, as a result, shops were empty.
The vulnerable agricultural sector experienced a massive failure in 1995-96. In 1995, a series of floods devastated about 40% of North Korea's arable land. As a result, grain production was reduced by 1.9 million tons, or about 30% of the total amount of grain necessary to feed the people. This trend continued in 1996. In 1997, North Korea was the victim of drought.
Current status
North Korea has not yet resumed its food self-sufficiency and relies on external food aid from China, Pakistan, Japan, South Korea and the United States. In 2002, North Korea requested that food supplies no longer be delivered.
In the mid-2000s, the World Food Programme reported that famine conditions were in imminent danger of returning to North Korea, and the government was reported to have mobilized millions of city-dwellers to help rice farmers.
Agricultural production increased from about 2.7 million metric tons in 1997 to 4.2 million metric tons in 2004.[14] As of 2011, famine continues to be a problem for North Korea, although less so than in the mid to late 1990s. Flooding in 2007 and reductions in food aid exacerbate the problem, however.
In 2011, during a visit to North Korea, US ex-president Jimmy Carter reported that one third of children there were malnourished and stunted in their growth because of lack of food. He also said that the North Korean state had reduced daily food intake from 1,400 calories to 700 calories in 2011[16] (a normal food intake for a healthy European is 2,000-2,500 calories per day). Some scholars believe that North Korea is purposefully exaggerating the food shortage, aiming to receive additional food supplies for its planned 2012 mass celebration by means of foreign aid.
International response
Initial assistance to North Korea started as early as 1990, with small-scale support from religious groups in South Korea and assistance from UNICEF. In August 1995, North Korea made an official request for humanitarian aid and the international community responded accordingly.
Beginning in 1997, the U.S. also began shipping food aid to North Korea through the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) to combat the famine. Shipments peaked in 1999 at nearly 700,000 tons making the U.S. the largest foreign aid donor to the country at the time. Under the Bush Administration, aid was drastically reduced year after year from 350,000 tons in 2001 to 40,000 in 2004. The Bush Administration took criticism for using "food as a weapon" during talks over the North's nuclear weapons program, but insisted the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) criteria were the same for all countries and the situation in North Korea had "improved significantly since its collapse in the mid-1990s."
China and South Korea remain the largest donors of food aid to North Korea. The U.S. objects to this manner of donating food due to lack of supervision. In 2005, China and South Korea combined to provide 1 million tons of food aid, each contributing half.
Humanitarian aid from North Korea's neighbors has been cut off at times to provoke North Korea to resume boycotted talks. For example, South Korea decided to "postpone consideration" of 500,000 tons of rice for the North in 2006 but the idea of providing food as a clear incentive (as opposed to resuming "general humanitarian aid") has been avoided. There have also been aid disruptions due to widespread theft of railroad cars used by mainland China to deliver food relief.
Estimated deaths
Estimates of the number of deaths vary widely.
On May 15, 2001, Choe Su-hon, one of Pyongyang's nine deputy foreign ministers, at a UNICEF conference in Beijing stated that between 1995 and 1998, 220,000 people had died in the famine. He also gave figures of an infant mortality increase from 27 to 48 per 1,000 people.
In 1998, US Congressional staffers who visited the country reported that: "Reliable sources estimate that of North Korea's 23 million people, between 300,000-800,000 people have died each year (peaking in 1997) as a result of the food shortages." They went on to say: "Other estimates of the death toll by exile groups are much higher." These higher estimates are sometimes considered problematic as they are based on the experience of North Koreans in the province of North Hamgyŏng. The province was one of the most devastated due to its urban environment and lack of agricultural production. Additionally, the original study warned not to extrapolate the death toll of the famine to the whole of North Korea. The same source goes on to say "The most reliable evaluation, carried out in a doctoral thesis at the University of Warwick by South Korean economist Suk Lee, shows that up to 660,000 people died from starvation and malnutrition-related diseases." It then goes on to say: "However, the truth is that nobody - including the government - probably knows the real figure."
