Balanced News Blog

With the end of 2005, the U.N.’s World Food Program is slated to shut down its decade-long food distribution effort in North Korea after Pyongyang told the organization that the aid was no longer needed. The program was the biggest multinational humanitarian program in the country and was instrumental in pulling North Korea out of a famine that killed up to 2.5 million people in the mid-1990s and drove many to flee the country.

At the same time, the government announced it would revert to central control of all grain distribution, shutting down market-based experiments in grain sales that started in 2002. Then the military reportedly seized grain earmarked as incentives for growers, while promising increased rations across the board.

While the Soviet Union dismantled and communist ally China moved towards market reforms, North Korea remained one of the most insular nations in the world under Kim Il Song, with tight controls over political and social realms. It has remained so under his son, President Kim Jong Il. While its 22 million people struggle with poverty, the regime largely shuns outside interference. Allowing food aid over the past 10 years was a rare exception.

In the short run, Pyongyang may well be able to make ends meet. Satellite photos reportedly show that the country’s 2005 harvest was better than in previous years, by some accounts 10 percent above levels of recent years. And both Beijing and Seoul, seeking to prevent a collapse and chaos in the neighborhood, are set to continue sending food aid to North Korea on a bilateral basis.

Read the entire article at MSNBC »