Word: aid
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Pyongyang has taken an equally self-destructive position on food aid. Thanks to bad floods in 2007, food shortages last year were likely the worst experienced since the 1990s. The World Food Program (WFP) says it has launched a program to feed 6.2 million people in North Korea, or more than a quarter of the population. Yet in March, North Korea, without explanation, rejected all food aid from the United States, its largest official donor, and kicked five aid groups distributing the food out of the country. The step is potentially disastrous for the North Korean people. The WFP figures...
...time. From the capital, we drove down narrow country roads for nearly six hours, through small farming hamlets of white homes in neat rows. Men in army-green clothing worked the fields by hand; there were few tractors or animals in sight. Trucks with sacks of U.S. food aid passed...
That was seven years ago, but conditions have probably not improved even though Pyongyang continues to funnel scarce resources into weapons programs. Food shortages returned last year, while aid and investment from neighbors such as South Korea and Japan have dwindled. How bad the situation may be is hard to assess since North Korea doesn't reveal significant economic data. Estimates from South Korea's central bank, released on Monday, suggest that North Korea's gross domestic product recovered in 2008 after two years of contraction, with 3.7% growth. The bank attributed the increase to "one-off factors," such...
Other types of aid haven't been flowing into North Korea as in the past, either. During the decade in which South Korea pursued its "sunshine policy" of engagement with the North, Seoul became a major trading partner and source of aid, especially of much needed fertilizer. But current South Korean President Lee Myung Bak reversed the policy when he took office in 2008, linking economic cooperation with Pyongyang's dismantlement of its nuclear-weapons program. The result is that North Korea is now more dependent than ever on its main patron, China. Nicholas Eberstadt, a North Korea expert...
...Pyongyang TAKING THE GLOVES OFF In a meeting with South Korean President Lee Myung Bak, President Obama pledged to "break the pattern" of rewarding North Korea with aid only to have the country later renege on its promises to halt nuclear proliferation. On June 15, thousands of North Koreans gathered in Pyongyang for a demonstration against U.S.-led sanctions, which include the inspection of North Korean ships in an effort to block the transport of nuclear materials. The inspections are still voluntary, and most experts believe that North Korean vessels most likely would not agree to them. Pyongyang has threatened...