North Korean famine
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please discuss this issue on the talk page or replace this tag with a more specific message. This article has been tagged since April 2006. |
 |
This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. Please help recruit one or improve this article yourself. See the talk page for details. Please consider using {{Expert-subject}} to associate this request with a WikiProject |
The North Korean famine occurred during the mid 1990s in North Korea and lasted until about 2001 when the country had mostly recovered from the Arduous March but it was not until 2004 that North Korea finally announced that it would need no further assistance from foreign aid suppliers.
The famine killed an unknown number of people. No official numbers have been released.
Although sometimes the figure is said to be as high as 3 million or 10% of North Korea's population, this figure is considered problematic because it is 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. [1]
Famine struck North Korea in the mid-1990s, set off by unprecedented floods, and the collapse of the Soviet Union. This autarkic urban, industrial society had achieved food self-sufficiency in prior decades through a massive industrialization of agriculture. The economic system relied on "friendship prices" trade with the Soviet Union
The state-controlled economy continued to stagnate throughout the 1990s, as a result of poor industrial and agricultural productivity, the loss of guaranteed markets following the fall of the Soviet Union.
In 1995, responding to the North Korean flood that caused the famine, the United States government initially provided over $8 million in general humanitarian assistance (China was the only country to initially contribute more aid). However, eight years later, the United States government had provided $644 million in aid to the country which comprised nearly 50% of the aid going to North Korea.
The vulnerable agricultural sector experienced a massive failure in 1995-96, expanding to full-fledged famine by 1997-99. Scholars estimate 600,000 died of starvation (other estimates range from 200,000 to 3.5 million).[1] By 1999, food and development aid reduced famine deaths, but North Korea's continuing nuclear program led to a decline in foreign aid.
As late as 2000, there were frequent reports from reliable sources (such as the UN) of famine in all parts of North Korea except Pyongyang. North Korean citizens ran increasingly desperate risks to escape from the country, mainly into China.
North Korea has not yet resumed its food self-sufficiency and relies on external food aid from China, Japan, South Korea and the United States. In 2002, North Korea requested that food supplies no longer be delivered. (Woo-Cummings, 2002)
In the spring of 2005, the World Food Program 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 [2] [3].
However, the North Korean government stated that the 2005 cereal harvest reached 4.6 million tons (a 10% increase in comparison with 2004), the best harvest in the past ten years.
