NK Investigative Report 2001

The Truth Behind the North Korea Famine

from Chapter 1 of "Re-examining North Korea Missions" by David Lee, download entire thesis (185k, pdf)

C. Famine

Besides limited access and Juche ideology, the recent famine in North Korea presents new obstacles and challenges to mission work in the country. Spreading the gospel to a people that are dying of starvation is a sensitive matter. The extent of the famine, the causes of the famine, and the issues it presents to Christian missions must be examined.

1. The Extent of the Famine

North Korea has been hit with a massive famine that is changing all facets of life. Since 1990, North Korea has had a food shortage of more than 1 million tons every year, and lately a two million ton shortage. According to a delegation from the U.S. House of Representatives, the famine-death toll since 1995 probably ranges between 900,000 and 2 million. According to defector Hwang Jang Yop, 2.5 million DPRK citizens have died in the last three years from famine. He estimates 500,000 people had starved to death in 1995 and a million each in 1996 and 1997. However, some estimates put the death toll even higher. The South China Morning Post reported that 3.5 million had allegedly died of famine in North Korea since 1994, citing a Korean Buddhist monk who interviewed 1,500 North Korean refugees in the border area in China. Following this estimate, it is possible that out of North Korea's 22 million populace a staggering 16 percent may have already died due to the recent famine.

If these estimates are accurate, the famine in North Korea clearly equals, if not surpasses, the great Ethiopian and Somalian famines of the 1980s and early 1990s. First, the North Korean famine toll exceeds the death toll in Somalia where 1.5 million died in the early 1990s, and in Ethiopia where 1 million died in the mid 1980s. Second, a higher percentage of people have starved to death in North Korea than the famines in Ethiopia and Somalia. Third, the North Korea famine is slower and more devastating than in Ethiopia and Somalia. In Ethiopia in 1984 and Somalia in 1992, some areas were completely unaffected, while others, savaged by civil war as well as crop failure, starved. However, in North Korea everyone is slowly starving together. It is a kind of socialist famine where few are unaffected.

Accurately estimating the number of deaths in the North Korea famine is extremely difficult for a number of reasons. First, the North Korea regime does not allow many foreigners to enter, and when foreigners are allowed to enter they are restricted to travel to areas where the government allows them. As a result, the outside world has very little knowledge of what is going on in North Korea. Second, the Pyongyang authorities have been accused of exaggerating the food situation in a bid to obtain more food from the international community. In fact, statistics out of Pyongyang are, as a rule, not reliable. Third, the North Korean government bars hunger relief workers from making unscheduled on-site inspections. In fact, relief workers are not allowed to visit areas in North Korea that were hit by the famine the most. Thus, even relief agencies find it difficult estimating the full extent of the famine.

Though exact statistics are difficult to reach, the horror of the famine is hardly doubted by relief aid workers, visitors, and North Korean defectors. One relief aid worker recalls:

Each morning I was in Pyongyang I ran around parts of the city I would not otherwise have been shown. Everywhere I saw people slumped by the side of the road, exhausted and starving, and people stripping bark off the city's trees for food.

One Chinese businessman who travels to North Korea several times a month confirms people eating tree bark, saying "All the bark has been carved from the trees with knives" and people have begun eating the inner layers of pine-tree bark-especially noxious. The North Korea authorities have reportedly even broadcasted recipes for boiling various grasses. Recently, incidences of cannabilism have been reported by refugees fleeing North Korea. The relief agency Doctors Without Borders cited a 23-year-old refugee who says he saw his neighbors eat their dead daughter. The refugee also cited a Chinese-Korean who said one woman ate her 2-year-old child to stave off hunger.

Perhaps the people affected by the famine the most are the children and the elderly. They are the ones who are most susceptible to starvation and death. According to United Nations figures, more than 80 percent of North Korean children under 10 years are suffering from malnutrition. A whole generation of people are growing up stunted in their growth. UNICEF reported that it had observed severe physical problems among children such as night blindness, which eventually leads to total blindness, rickets and scurvy.

Famine-related diseases are killing many more people than starvation. As people grow hungry and their bodies weaken, their immune system weakens immensely. As a result, the public health emergency is of urgent concern. Many North Koreans are developing stomach diseases because of contaminated water. Rivers are so polluted in parts of North Korea that the water can't be used even for industrial purposes. Half of the human waste produced in Pyongyang, according to South Korean estimates, is dumped in the Taedong River without treatment.

2. Causes of the Famine

Famine and mass starvation in North Korea are signs of a contracting economy and poor agricultural policies. According to the Institute of Contemporary International Problems, the North Korean economy's growth figures from 1990 to 1995 are as follows: -3.7 percent in 1990, -5.2 percent in 1991, -7.6 percent in 1992, -8.5 percent in 1993, -2.0 percent in 1994, and -5.0 percent in 1995. The major cause of famine in North Korea is that the economy has reached a point where it cannot even feed its own people. In Pyongyang, cars are idled because of lack of spare parts and fuel, telephones only work sporadically, and no heating or tap water is available in apartment houses. The deteriorating economy has left many fertilizer factories lying idle due to lack of fuel and raw materials.

The North Korean economy was hurt severely when assistance from the Soviet Union was cut off after 1990. Unable to obtain sufficient supplies of oil and coal essential to industry, DPRK industrial output fell. North Korea soon realized that it was more "reliant" on foreign countries than it had thought it was. The North Korean economy was also stifled by an over-developed military industry that sacrificed development in the consumer goods industry and agricultural sector. It is estimated that up to 50 percent of the DPRK's national income is spent now in one way or another on military needs. Much is channeled through the budget into civilian branches, but is in fact spent for military purposes. For the sake of military development North Korea has sacrificed the rest of the economy, including the ability to feed its people.

Another major cause of the famine is North Korea's failed agricultural policies. North Korea officials would rather blame natural disasters, citing the 1995 floods as the major cause of the famine. It is true that in 1995 North Korea experienced the worst natural disaster in its history-massive floods. Though North Korean official statistics of $15 billion worth of damage were probably inflated, nevertheless, harvests were reduced to less than half the 1993 levels. However, the true cause of the flooding was failed agricultural policies. Much of the hillsides had been stripped of their trees and shrubs, leaving the land vulnerable to erosion and floods. First, Kim Il Sung tried to double rice by ploughing up marginal land on the hillsides, thereby uprooting much-needed trees. Second, as the economy worsened many farmers started to slash trees to barter with China for food. As a result, even a normal amount of rain causes in flooding in North Korea.

The famine situation is not likely to improve in the near future. Russian experts note, "In absence of radical reform aimed at increasing efficiency in land use and preventing land degradation, unfavorable conditions in the agricultural sector will continue to prevail in the late 1990s."

3. Challenges the Famine Presents to Missions

The famine in North Korea poses several challenges to Christian missions in the country. The first concerns the ethics of relief aid in missions; more specifically, is it ethical to give aid to a country that openly resists the gospel and persecutes the church? Following a logical argument, the more aid is given to North Korea, the longer the regime can stay in power; the longer the regime stays in power, the longer Christians are persecuted and Christian missions blocked. However, many relief agencies claim that aid should not focus on politics and needs. World Vision Vice-President Andrew Natsios denies aid supports the regime, but rather "the people who are first to die in a famine are children under five, [breast-feeding] mothers and elderly people... the elites and the military always eat." However, there is clear evidence that aid is diverted to the military while the masses go hungry. According to defector Kim Dong-su, North Korean Ambassador Kim Heung-rim once told the members of the North Korea mission to the FAO that food aid is being diverted to the military in preparation for war. Defector Lee Kwang Soo, when asked if he would give aid to North Korea, replied, "I don't want to give them anything. If I send them stuff it will be used for the Army. That aid goes to party members and the Army." Political experts note, "for the North Korean leadership, there is only one concern of importance: ensuring that the military, upon which the North Korean leadership relies as the cornerstone of its power, is kept well-armed and well-fed." Almost all relief agencies are not allowed to supervise distribution of aid because the government takes direct control over all food distribution. Therefore, it is not clear if aid, and how much, is going to the people who need it most. Is it right to continue to give aid even if we can't confirm that it goes to the hungry? Should relief agencies still give food aid even if they can't supervise distribution? What should be the Christian stance towards giving to North Korea famine relief?

The second challenge the famine poses to missions in North Korea is related to meeting needs-how do we meet the spiritual, physical and social needs of a starving people? People starving to death have obvious physical needs-the need for food and medical care. Besides physical needs, spiritual needs also appear, such as the need for spiritual security, a healthy inner state of mind, and a positive outlook on life. Also, people living in famine conditions experience social needs. Many families in North Korea have been broken apart as family members have died. Children without parents, parents without children, and people dislocated in society will need to find their place in society once again. They will need to experience new relationships in a healthy way. All of these needs present a unique challenge to the Christian mission effort centered around North Korea. How do we share Jesus to a people that is being decimated by famine?

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