North Korea - Essay Example

North Korea North Korea North Korea’s history began when the Soviet Union occupied the Korean Peninsula, which is a division of Korea described as the 38th parallel because it lays 38˚N, north of latitude 38 (Pruitt, 2013). This research has chosen North Korea in order to learn more about it, since it has largely remained a secretive and controversial country that isolates itself from the international community. Restricted travel out of or into the country, as well as strictly controlled media, have helped in maintaining the isolation. Although the early 1990s Soviet Union’s collapse left China as North Korea’s only significant ally, recent aggressive actions and defiant statements by its leader, Kim Jong-Un, are threatening that association as well (Spoorenberg & Schwekendiek, 2012). Recently, North Korea has been reported to suffer food insecurity that was brought to the limelight in the mid-1990s. By 2013, 28 percent of North Korea’s children below five years of age suffered chronically from food insecurity, whereas 66 percent of the nation’s total population, or 16 million people, relied on the Public Distribution System (PDS) (Hartzner, 2013a). However, as studies of the country’s history shows, the food insecurity did not simply result from a few years of persistently poor weather or harvest but rather, a culmination of a series of poorly prioritized government decisions over decades. This project will research on the history of North Korea and how it has contributed to its current food insecurity and the solutions in place to address the issue. Korea’s division is a typical example of the Cold War’s legacy. The Korean Peninsula was captured by Japan 1910, where they exercised military rule up to 1945. After Japan was defeated in WWII, the northern region of the peninsula was secured by Soviet troops while the southern part was secured by American troops. Effectively, communism was engrained in the north, resulting in Kim Il-Sung’s emergence in 1948, who later became the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s (DPRK) first premier. North Korea became a full-fledged Communist country by 1949. All mass organizations and parties joined the presumably popular but actually Communist-dominated Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland (Spoorenberg & Schwekendiek, 2012). On the other hand, the US was fast in urging the United Nations General Assembly to sanction elections in the south, adopting a constitution as well as inaugurating of the Republic of Korea, Seoul being the capital. Growing tensions between the governments of the north and south, both backed by their powerful allies, eventually erupted into war. North Korean troops, backed by the Soviet Union, attacked the south in fighting that lasted from 1950 to 1953 and cost over two million lives (Pruitt, 2013). Since its formation, North Korea has been governed by one family alone in its entire existence. Kin Il-Sung was installed by Joseph Stalin, the Soviet leader, in 1948 and was in office until 1994 when he died. Kim Jong-Il, hi son, took over after his father’s death. In turn, Kim Jong-Il’s son, Kim Jong-Un took over after his father’s death. From agriculture’s perspective, the government was slow in adapting a command economy. In 1946, the ‘Land to Tiller’ reform redistributed most of the agricultural land to the landless and poor peasant population (Spoorenberg & Schwekendiek, 2012). That effectively broke the landed class’ power. However, the government carried out a partial collectivization in 1954 and forced the peasants to join agricultural co-operatives and by 1958, all farming was a collective activity, merging the co-operatives into larger and more productive units. The Worker’ Party of Korea conducted developmental debates throughout the 1959s but, like all the communist states of the postwar era, the North Korean government prioritized other areas at the expense of producing consumer goods. Investment focused on military strength, state infrastructure and heavy industry. The state paid out low and state-controlled prices to the collectivized peasants for their produce within its three-year strategies. This grew its economy’s industry share to 70 percent in 1959 from only 47 percent in 1946, in spite of the devastation that resulted from the Korean War. The huge increases in machine building, steel production and electricity production as well as large output achieved from tractors and agricultural machinery imply that North Korea could feed itself without external help ) (Hartzner, 2013a). The leaders’ obsession with retaining power led to the further isolation of the state, despite it being a generally poor country, and a determined pursuit of nuclear research that has gone on for decades. The state’s trading companies served as an alternative way of carrying out economic relations with foreign countries. However, the companies, which were state-owned, only funded the regime, with part of their earnings sent directly into personal accounts held by Kin Jong-Il for the purpose of securing the senior leadership’s loyalty. Food production was continuously neglected. With the economic reforms that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the old coupon system was abolished, yet it previously favored citizens who were considered non-productive. This was largely due to the collapse of trade between North Korea and the Soviet Union, cutting the flow of agricultural inputs into North Korea. Since the government refused to be flexible and respond, food production almost ground to a halt. That meant that average urban households would spent up to 85 percent of their restricted income on food alone, while state farmers afforded to spend only 25 percent of their earnings on food (Pruitt, 2013). Such discriminations, disparities and unequal access to food are evident that the state did not have safety mechanisms to shield vulnerable citizens such as the elderly, children and housewives. When the food crisis set in properly, food access was only through the PDS and strictly conducted by the regime. Evidently, this meant that entitlement was a function, albeit indirectly, of political status. From the country’s history, it becomes evident that although a series of droughts and floods contributed towards the food crisis, they were not the only or direct cause. Rather, political factors in the form of the collapse and loss of the Soviet Union’s support in food imports and production as well as economic mismanagement are largely to blame. Further, the centrally-planned and structured system employed by the state turned out to be too rigid to counter the disaster effectively. Currently, the most devastating phases of the crisis have since passed, but the state has not yet resumed self-sufficiency in food and is still heavily reliant on foreign aid. Small scale support from UNICEF, South Korea and religious groups marked the initial food assistance in the early 1990s (Spoorenberg & Schwekendiek, 2012). The US started distributing food aid through the World Food Program (WFP) in 1996 and by 1999, it was the largest donor with almost 600, 000 tons of food. However, the US aid was reduced drastically because of lack of supervision. In 2013, the WFP started a new operation to support the nutritional needs of children and women in the state. However, it was clearly stated that the WFP would not attempt to bring down the state’s food gap, but would instead focus on addressing the nutrition gap among breastfeeding and pregnant women and young children (WFP, 2013). Its aim is to cure and prevent acute malnutrition in children between four months and four years old and their mothers. This sets a target group of 2.4 million children and women considered to be most vulnerable. This was planned to run over a two-year period starting July 2013. The WFP model of aid is a better starting point, rather than simply donating foodstuff aimed at reducing the food gap. Targeting women and children is even more significant because North Korea’s gendered structure did not favor them, exposing them to difficulties in keeping themselves healthy. Women have the highest participation in the state’s workforce and are expected to obtain their families’ food supplies. Children below the age of two were adversely affected by poverty and famine during the crisis. By 2013, over 33 percent of North Korean children were malnourished and also had stunted growth due to lack of food (WFP, 2013). Therefore, this approach will not only address the issue from its roots but also tackle a cultural challenge that has been posed by the gendered structure. Mission East, in conjunction with the WFP, has been conducting various interventions in the form of food assistance to pediatric hospitals, orphanages, nurseries and kindergartens, reaching over 50,000 children (Hartzner, 2013b). The significance of this approach, just like that of the WFP, is that it targets children at critical growth and development stages. If left unattended at such an early age, inadequate nutrition will lead to psychological complications that can persist for a lifetime apart from the stunted growth. Another positive move by Mission East that not only focuses on feeding children and women is the rebuilding of houses for the hungry people who were also rendered homeless by floods in 2012 and 2013. Water systems that were also damaged during the floods, affecting the only means of irrigating the reviving agricultural sector are also being reconstructed by Mission East. Mission aid is also aware of some natural factors that pose a challenge to agricultural production in North Korea and is, therefore, looking for opportunities for long term projects that will address food insecurity’s root causes (Hartzner, 2013b). For example, the state’s large mountainous terrains restrict the available arable land, while frequent droughts, floods, lack of agricultural diversity and insect damage need to be addressed for long term sustenance. References Hartzner, K. (2013a). Food insecurity in North Korea. Retrieved from http://www.miseast.org/en/nkorea/food-insecurity-north-korea Hartzner, K. (2013b). Hungry children in North Korea. Retrieved from http://www.miseast.org/en/nkorea/food-insecurity-north-korea Pruitt, S. (2013). What you need to know about North Korea. Retrieved from http://www.history.com/news/what-you-need-to-know-about-north-korea Spoorenberg, T., & Schwekendiek, D. (2012). Demographic changes in North Korea: 1993- 2008. Population and Development Review 38(1), 133-158. World Food Program (WFP). (2013). Korea, Democratic People’s Republic (DPRK). Retrieved from http://www.wfp.org/countries/korea-democratic-peoples-republic-dprk/overview Read More