Archive for the ‘2012 food shortage’ Category

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Farming Regions in State of Tension

Tuesday, May 15th, 2012

According to the Daily NK:

This year, the North Korean authorities are once again emphasizing the need to strive for greater food production as the farming season begins, launching the annual 40-day total farm mobilization period with the words “Let’s mobilize the whole party, the whole nation and all the people to reach the grain production targets.”

Rodong Shinmun published editorials on the subject on both the 11th and again on the 12th, reflecting the emphasis being optimistically placed on solving food security issues in 2012. Kim Jong Eun also emphasized the same in his major statements on the 6th and 27th of last month, understandably so given that farm productivity has the potential to play such a decisive role in stabilizing the first full winter of his rule.

Inside sources say that the mobilization atmosphere is unusually intense this year in farming villages. Cadres and people alike are feeling the strain of Kim Jong Eun’s first season in charge, with the assumption being that this year could see severe punishments meted out for any wrongdoing.

A South Hamkyung Province explained to Daily NK yesterday, “The whole nation is out there supporting the farms, including enterprises affiliated with state agencies, upper middle school and college students and military bases. People are not allowed to be at home or in the streets. Restaurants are not open either. Everybody is out on the farms. It’s just like martial law, really brutal.”

“5 or 6 safety agents have set up a desk in the street and are stopping people passing by, confiscating their identifications and the bikes they are on and sending them to nearby farms,” he went on. “People can only pass if they have a confirmation slip from a cooperative farm management committee.”

“The markets are only allowed to open from 5PM to 8PM after farm work is done for the day, so excluding preparation and organizing time, there is only an hour or so that the market is open. Buyers and sellers are all super busy,” he added.

During the 40-day total mobilization period, school classes are halted and students sent off to farms for forty days carrying their food and bedding. Laborers, workers in administrative organs and members of the Union of Democratic Women all commute from home to local collective farms until the planting and seeding is done.

North Korea has had the policy in place since 2006. Prior to that, students still had to farm every day, but full-time workers and members of the Union of Democratic Women went out just twice or three times a month.

In 2006, five provincial Party cadres from North Hamkyung Province were caught enjoying a spa during the period. They were summarily kicked out of the Party and sent into internal exile with their families.

“Until last year we were able to get confirmation of attendance from farm management committee cadres by giving a bribe, but with this year being the first under Kim Jong Eun, those tricks are unlikely to work,” the source concluded.

Read full story here:

Farming Regions in State of Tension
Daily NK
Choi Song Min
2012-5-15

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Posted in 2012 food shortage, Agriculture, Democratic Women's Union, Education, Food, General markets (FMR: Farmers Market), Labor conditions/wages | Comments Closed

UN estimates DPRK to secure 2m tons of rice in 2012

Wednesday, May 9th, 2012

According to Yonhap:

A U.N. food agency has estimated that North Korea will secure 2 million tons of rice in 2012, up about 18 percent from last year, a news report said Wednesday.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said that the North produced 1.6 million tons of rice last fall and is expected to import 300,000 tons of rice and receive 100,000 tons of outside assistance, Washington-based Radio Free Asia reported, citing the FAO’s food outlook.

The Rome-based U.N. agency also estimated that North Korea’s per capita rice consumption is expected to increase to 72.3 kilograms between last year’s fall and summer of this year, up from 64 kilograms in the same period last year, the RFA said.

In February, the FAO said more than 3 million vulnerable people are estimated to face a food deficit as chronic food insecurity continues throughout North Korea.

The North has relied on international handouts since the late 1990s when it suffered a massive famine that was estimated to have killed 2 million people.

Marcus Noland has a piece here on global food prices.

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U.N. estimates N. Korea to secure 2 million tons of rice this year
Yonhap
2012-5-9

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Posted in 2012 food shortage, Agriculture, Food, UN Food and Agriculture Organization | Comments Closed

Food distribution unchanged in April

Tuesday, May 8th, 2012

According to the Daily NK:

The World Food Programme (WFP) has revealed that food distribution by the North Korean authorities in April, the month of Kim Il Sung’s centennial birthday, was on the same scale as in the month before.

According to Radio Free Asia (RFA) yesterday, WFP believes that food distribution to the North Korean people this past April was 400g per day, which is 66% of the 600g per day recommended intake.

Nana Skau, the WFP’s North Korea spokesperson explained, “The food distributed by the North Korean authorities was a mix of rice and corn, and depending on the region the mix was either at 2:8 or 3:7.”

She went on, “In April there were many celebrations including Kim Il Sung’s 100th birthday so a lot of public institutions were either closed or distribution from them went down. The reason why our 83 cases of food distribution in 22 counties was one third of the previous month’s total of 220 cases in 59 counties was also because there were many public holidays.”

Meanwhile, WFP has revealed that aid is still entering the country, announcing that “In April 98.5 tons of food arrived in North Korea and in May 2,700 tons of mostly beans and powdered milk is expected to be sent there.”

Read the full story here:
Food Distribution Unmoved by April
Daily NK
Hwang Chang Hyun
2012-05-08

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Posted in 2012 food shortage, Food, Foreign aid statistics, International Aid, Public Distribiution System (PDS), Statistics, UN, UN World Food Program | Comments Closed

WFP to [not to] extend emergency mission to DPRK

Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012

UPDATE 1 (2012-2-24): The Choson Ilbo reports that the UN WFP is not extending its DPRK mission. According to the article:

The World Food Programme plans to end its emergency aid mission to North Korea in March as originally scheduled.

Citing officials from the WFP, Radio Free Asia reported Thursday that its emergency operation for the most vulnerable groups in the North, including children, pregnant women and the elderly, will end next month.

The organization said once the emergency program is over it will switch back to its smaller-scale assistance program, which provides food to roughly 3.5 million women and children in need of immediate nutritional support.

Meanwhile, the report added that the UN-affiliated organization had only raised about 30 percent of the funds needed to support North Koreans as of Wednesday.

ORIGINAL POST (2012-2-22): According to the Korea Herald:

The U.N. World Food Programme is planning to extend its Emergency Aid mission to North Korea beyond the original deadline of March.

The Emergency Operation, which started in April, aimed to address a dangerous and worsening food crisis in North Korea. It focused on the most vulnerable groups, women and children, of which there were 3.5 million in need of immediate support to prevent starvation.

The WFP has been able to work with North Korea in carrying out the operation, under very stringent rules.

Although the WFP has experienced some successes, a difficult 2011 has meant that the mission was unable to fully address the growing crisis, and an extension of the emergency operation is needed.

“We are currently finalizing plans for the operation beyond this point, but it will certainly continue to focus on the provision of nutritional assistance to the most vulnerable women and children,” WFP Asia spokesman Marcus Prior said.

Despite making progress in the latter stages of 2011, the WFP was unable to fulfill the goals of the original mission.

“Because of relatively slow funding at the outset, and the time taken to purchase and ship the food to the DPRK, distributions were at a very low level through the lean season months of May to August,” Prior said. DPRK stands for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, North Korea’s official name.

“At one point in the middle of 2011, production of specialized nutritious foods at factories supported by WFP came to an almost complete standstill,” said Prior. WFP documents say that during that time “much of the population of DPRK suffered prolonged food deprivation.”

The WFP says there is a “chronic gap” between the daily nutrients needed and the nutrients North Koreans have access to, with the situation more crucial for women and children.

Recent studies have shown that malnutrition in the first 1,000 days from conception can have permanent consequences for both physiological and intellectual development.

With a recent U.N. estimate that one-third of North Korea’s children under 5 are malnourished, the continuing crisis could have catastrophic implications on their future and not just their immediate food needs.

The WFP also reported through interviews with health officials that there was a 50 to 100 percent increase in the admissions of malnourished children into pediatric wards compared to last year.

The latest WFP DPRK report has called for more international aid that will be needed for the continued efforts, as the food from the original mission begins to reach its limits.

“We continue to have supplies available to see us through the next three to four months, but will require significant new funding to ensure these distributions can continue through the later, most difficult, lean season months of this year.”

Although the WFP does not collect data on the death toll caused by the 2011 food shortage, the latest report did say that another year of the same prolonged food deprivation will have a serious impact on the North Korean population.

My compendium of DPRK food stories in 2011 is here.

Read the full story here:
WFP to extend emergency mission to North Korea
Korea Herald
Hamish Macdonald
2012-2-22

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Posted in 2011 food shortage debate, 2012 food shortage, Food, International Aid, UN, UN World Food Program | Comments Closed

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