By Hyo-Jin Paik
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia
UNITED NATIONS – A UN report released yesterday blamed North Korea’s oppressive regime, which leaves its people to live in continual fear of repression by authorities, for the food crisis in North Korea.
The report said 9 million out of 24 million North Koreans are suffering from food shortages, and the World Food Programme is reaching fewer than 2 million people due to countries cutting international aid to North Korea because of Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile tests.
Calling North Korea’s human rights record “abysmal,” UN Special Rapporteur Vitit Muntarbhorn, a Thai academic, said, “The freedoms from want, from fear, from discrimination, from persecution and from exploitation are regrettably transgressed with impunity by those authorities, in an astonishing setting of abuse after abuse.”
Malnourished North Korean girls dying of starvation. Courtesy of bloggers-unite.
He added, “It is the exploitation of the ordinary people which has become the pernicious prerogative of the ruling elite. This is all the more ironic since it is reported that the economy has improved slightly over the past year, an indication that more resources could be available to help the population.”
The report provided that North Korea’s natural resources were more abundant than its neighbor, South Korea. South Korean government estimated that undeveloped mineral reserves in North Korea are worth about $5.94 trillion.
Although North Korea’s food crisis usually stem from natural disasters which impact the production, the Thai professor said, “[North Korea] is not poor yet the money is not spent on the people.”
Apparently, North Korea’s exports last year totaled several billion dollars.
North Korean deputy UN Ambassador Pak Tok-hun rejected the findings in the UN report saying the report is a “politically conspired document full of distortion, lies, falsity, [and] devised by hostile forces.”
North Korea farmers working in the fields. Courtesy of AP Photo.
Pak added that pressuring his country was “totally useless” and emphasized “the pride in [North Korea’s] system to protect human rights.
Luckily, South Korea’s Unification Minister Hyun In-taek said Friday that South Korea will soon send a limited amount of humanitarian aid to ease North’s food shortage.
For more information, please see:
AFP – UN official slams “abysmal” NKorea rights record – 23 October 2009
AsiaNews – UN: human rights situation in North Korea “very bad” – 23 October 2009
CBC News – N. Korea regime to blame for food crisis: UN – 23 October 2009
Guardian – UN envoy says North Korea should feed its 9 million hungry citizens – 23 October 2009
Straight Times – S.Korean to resume limited aid – 23 October 2009
