1990s North Korean famine

1994–1999 famine in North Korea Arduous March North Korea Nationwide 1994–1999 240,000 to 3.5 million Food and humanitarian aid (1994–2002) Militarization of economy, spread of limited market activity, food aid from various countries Economic mismanagement,Noland Marcus Famine and Reform in North Korea Asian Economic Papers 2004 3 2 1–40 10.1162/1535351044193411 57565869 natural disasters,https://www.economist.com/asia/1997/04/17/a-terrible-truth 24 September 2011 North Korea: A terrible truth The Economist 17 April 1997 international sanctions,Haggard Stephan Stephan Haggard https://books.google.com/books?id=6MoChuyC84gC Famine in North Korea: Markets, Aid, and Reform Noland Marcus 2007 Columbia University Press 978-0-231-51152-0 38 en The failure of the International Atomic Energy Agency, South Korea, and the United States to resolve the crisis in a timely manner and the tightening of sanctions against the country constituted an important background condition for the famine. collapse of the Soviet bloc yes ^고난의 행군 苦難의行軍 The North Korean famine (조선기근), dubbed by the government as the Arduous March (고난의 행군 no), was a period of mass starvation together with a general economic crisis from 1994 to 1999 in North Korea.Famine in North Korea: markets, aid, and reform Stephan. Haggard 2007 Columbia University Press Noland, Marcus, 1959– 978-0-231-14000-3 New York 166342476Hancocks Paula 2023-03-03 North Korea's food shortage is about to take a deadly turn for the worse, experts say https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/03/asia/north-korea-hunger-famine-food-shortages-intl-hnk/index.html 2024-01-27 CNN en During this time there was an increase in defection from North Korea, which peaked towards the end of the famine period. Economic mismanagement and the loss of Soviet support caused food production and imports to decline rapidly. A series of floods and droughts exacerbated the crisis. Another contributing background factor was the tightening of international sanctions. The North Korean government and its centrally planned system proved too inflexible to effectively curtail the disaster. North Korea attempted to obtain aid and commercial opportunities, but failed to receive initial attention. After repeatedly refusing international help, North Korea only sought international aid after 1995.Kang David C. 2012-01-01 They Think They're Normal: Enduring Questions and New Research on North Korea—A Review Essay https://muse.jhu.edu/article/461858 International Security 36 3 142–171 1531-4804 Project MUSE 10.1162/isec_a_00068 57564589 subscription The failure of the International Atomic Energy Agency, South Korea, and the United States to resolve the crisis in a timely manner and the tightening of sanctions against the country constituted an important background condition for the famine.Haggard Stephan https://books.google.com/books?id=6MoChuyC84gC Famine in North Korea: Markets, Aid, and Reform Noland Marcus 2007 Columbia University Press 978-0-231-51152-0 38–39 en "Most important for our purposes, however, are signs of more aggressive commercial diplomacy and "aid seeking" beginning in 1994. These proposals were initially either rebuffed or their significance ignored." Stephan Haggard Estimates of the death toll vary widely. Out of a total population of approximately 22 million, somewhere between 240,000 and 3,500,000 North Koreans died from starvation or hunger-related illnesses, with the deaths peaking in 1997.Noland, Marcus, Sherman Robinson and Tao Wang, Famine in North Korea: Causes and Cures https://web.archive.org/web/20110706214340/http://www.iie.com/publications/wp/99-2.pdf 2011-07-06, Institute for International Economics. Spoorenberg Thomas Schwekendiek Daniel 2012 Demographic Changes in North Korea: 1993–2008 Population and Development Review 38 1 133–158 10.1111/j.1728-4457.2012.00475.x 10.1111/j.1728-4457.2012.00475.x free A 2011 U.S. Census Bureau report estimated the number of excess deaths from 1993 to 2000 to be between 500,000 and 600,000. Background In North Korea, the famine is referred to as the Arduous March. It was one of the most important events in the history of North Korea, because it forced the country and its people to change their lives in fundamental and unanticipated ways. The terms "Arduous March", "March of Hardship", or "March of Suffering" became the official metaphor for the famine following a state propaganda campaign in 1993. The Rodong Sinmun urged the North Korean citizenry to invoke the memory of a propaganda fable from Kim Il Sung's time as a commander of a small group of anti-Japanese guerrilla fighters. The story, referred to as the Arduous March, is described as "fighting against thousands of enemies in 20 degrees below zero, braving a heavy snowfall and starvation, the red flag fluttering in front of the rank". Nothing to Envy: Love, Life and Death in North Korea Demick Barbara Barbara Demick 2010 Fourth Estate Sydney 978-0-7322-8661-3 69 As part of this state campaign, uses of words such as 'famine' and 'hunger' were banned because they implied government failure. Citizens who said deaths were due to the famine could be in serious trouble with the authorities.Mapping a Hidden Disaster: Personal Histories of Hunger in North Korea https://hazdoc.colorado.edu/bitstream/handle/10590/5438/C024508.pdf?sequence=1 https://web.archive.org/web/20161128195312/https://hazdoc.colorado.edu/bitstream/handle/10590/5438/C024508.pdf?sequence=1 28 November 2016 25 June 2018 Natural Hazards Center – University of Colorado dmy-all A special group (the Simhwajo) was set up to purge the citizens responsible.Kim Jong Il's North Korea -An Arduous March- / Spot Survey No.7 https://www.ide.go.jp/English/Publish/Reports/Spot/07.html Institute of Developing Economies 28 May 2024 en Less than 20% of North Korea's mountainous terrain is arable land. Much of the land is frost-free for only six months, and only one crop can be grown on it per year. The country has never been self-sufficient in food production, and several experts considered it unrealistic and economically imprudent for the country to aim for self-sufficiency rather than trade. Oberdorfer Don Carlin Robert The Two Koreas: A Contemporary History Basic Books 2014 291 978-0-465-03123-8 Due to North Korea's terrain, farming is mainly concentrated along the flatlands of the four western coastal provinces, where there is a longer growing season, level land, substantial rainfall, and well-irrigated soil conducive to the high cultivation of crops. Along with the western coastal provinces, fertile land also runs through the eastern seaboard provinces. However, interior provinces such as Chagang and Ryanggang are too mountainous, dry, and cold to support food crop farming. In the 1980s, the Soviet Union embarked on a campaign of radical reform known as perestroika. It began to demand that North Korea repay the Soviet Union for all of the past and current aid which it sent to North Korea – amounts which North Korea could not repay. By 1991, the Soviet Union dissolved alongside the Eastern Bloc, ending all aid and trade concessions, such as cheap oil. Without Soviet aid, the flow of imports to the North Korean agricultural sector ended, and the government proved to be too inflexible to respond.Hunger and human rights: the politics of famine in North Korea Stephan. Haggard 2005 U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea Noland, Marcus, 1959–, Committee for Human Rights in North Korea. 978-0-9771111-0-7 1st Washington, DC 64390356 Energy imports fell by 75%. Oberdorfer Don Carlin Robert The Two Koreas: A Contemporary History Basic Books 2014 181 978-0-465-03123-8 The economy went into a downward spiral, with imports and exports falling in tandem. Flooded coal mines required electricity to operate pumps, and the shortage of coal worsened the shortage of electricity. Agriculture reliant on electrically powered irrigation systems, artificial fertilizers and pesticides was hit particularly hard by the economic collapse. Nothing to Envy: Love, Life and Death in North Korea Demick Barbara Barbara Demick 2010 Fourth Estate Sydney 978-0-7322-8661-3 67 Oberdorfer Don Carlin Robert The Two Koreas: A Contemporary History Basic Books 2014 308 978-0-465-03123-8 Most North Koreans had experienced nutritional deprivation long before the mid-1990s. The country had reached the limits of its productive capacity, and could not respond effectively to exogenous shocks. North Korea's state trading companies emerged as an alternative means of conducting foreign economic relations. From the mid-1980s, these state trading companies became important conduits of funding for the regime, with a percentage of all revenues going "directly into Kim Jong Il's personal accounts... [which have been] used to secure and maintain the loyalty of the senior leadership".Frank Ruediger 2005-01-01 Economic Reforms in North Korea (1998–2004): Systemic Restrictions, Quantitative Analysis, Ideological Background Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy 10 3 278–311 10.1080/13547860500163613 154438679 1354-7860 The country soon imposed austerity measures, dubbed the "eat two meals a day" campaign.Oberdorfer Don https://books.google.com/books?id=rkKhPwAACAAJ The Two Koreas: A Contemporary History 1999 Warner 978-0-7515-2668-4 en These measures proved inadequate in stemming the economic decline. According to Professor Hazel Smith of Cranfield University: the methods of the past that had produced short-to medium-term gains might have continued producing further small economic benefits if the Soviet Union and the Eastern bloc had remained and continued to supply oil, technology, and expertise.Smith Hazel https://books.google.com/books?id=5OPTQevWE70C Hungry for Peace: International Security, Humanitarian Assistance, and Social Change in North Korea 2005 US Institute of Peace Press 978-1-929223-59-6 66 Without help from these countries, North Korea was unable to prevent the coming famine. For a time, China filled the gap left by the Soviet Union's collapse and propped up North Korea's food supply with significant aid.Haggard & Noland, Hunger and Human Rights, supra note 70, at 14. By 1993, China was supplying North Korea with 77 percent of its fuel imports and 68 percent of its food imports. In 1993, China faced its own grain shortfalls and need for hard currency, and it sharply cut aid to North Korea. In 1997, So Kwan-hui, the North Korean Minister for Agriculture, was accused of spying for the United States government and sabotaging North Korean agriculture on purpose, thus leading to the famine.Floru J.P. The Sun Tyrant: A Nightmare Called North Korea 2017 Biteback Publishing London, U.K. 978-1-78590-221-5 984074543 21 https://books.google.com/books?id=i-EoDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT20 When the size of the catastrophe he had caused became apparent, Kim Jong Il had his agricultural minister Seo Gwan Hee executed by firing squad. Seo was accused of being a spy for 'the American imperialists and their South Korean lackeys' and of having sabotaged North Korea's self-reliance in agriculture. As a result, he was publicly executed by firing squad by the North Korean government.Choe Sang-Hun N. Korea Is Said to Execute Finance Chief https://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/19/world/asia/19korea.html July 10, 2017 The New York Times March 18, 2010 North Korea publicly executed Seo Gwan-hee, a party secretary in charge of agriculture, on spying charges in 1997 when a famine decimated the population, according to defectors. Causes Floods and drought The economic decline and failed policies provided the context for the famine, but the floods of the mid-1990s were the immediate cause. The floods in July and August 1995 were described as being "of biblical proportions" by independent observers. Oberdorfer Don Carlin Robert The Two Koreas: A Contemporary History Basic Books 2014 290 978-0-465-03123-8 They were estimated to affect as much as 30 percent of the country. The Making of Modern Korea Buzo Adrian 2002 Routledge London 978-0-415-23749-9 175 As devastating floods ravaged the country in 1995, arable land, harvests, grain reserves, and social and economic infrastructure were destroyed. The United Nations Department of Humanitarian Affairs reported that "between 30 July and 18 August 1995, torrential rains caused devastating floods in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). In one area, in Pyongsan county in North Hwanghae province, 877 mm in 0 or of rain were recorded to have fallen in just seven hours, an intensity of precipitation unheard of in this area... water flow in the engorged Amnok River, which runs along the Korea/China border, was estimated at 4.8 billion tons over a 72-hour period. Flooding of this magnitude had not been recorded in at least 70 years".https://reliefweb.int/report/democratic-peoples-republic-korea/un-consolidated-inter-agency-appeal-flood-related-emergency UN Consolidated Inter-Agency appeal for Flood-Related Emergency Humanitarian Assistance to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) 1 July 1996 – 31 March 1997 – Democratic People's Republic of Korea | ReliefWeb reliefweb.int July 1996 Mar 11, 2023 The major issues created by the floods were not only the destruction of crop lands and harvests, but also the loss of emergency grain reserves, because many of them were stored underground. According to the United Nations, the floods of 1994 and 1995 destroyed around 1.5 million tons of grain reserves,UN Department of Humanitarian Affairs, "Consolidated UN Inter Agency-Appeal", 1 July 1996-21 March 1997. and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stated that 1.2 million tons (or 12%) of grain production was lost in the 1995 flood.UN Department of Humanitarian Affairs, "Status of Public Health-Democratic People's Republic of Korea, April 1997" There were further major floods in 1996 and a drought in 1997. Korea's Place in the Sun: A Modern History Cumings Bruce Bruce Cumings 2005 W. W. Norton & Company New York 978-0-393-32702-1 442 North Korea lost an estimated 85% of its power generation capacity due to flood damage to infrastructure such as hydropower plants, coal mines, and supply and transport facilities.David F. Von Hippel and Peter Hayes, "North Korean Energy Sector: Current Status and Scenarios for 2000 and 2005", in Economic Integration of the Korean Peninsula, ed. Noland, 89. UN officials reported that the power shortage from 1995 to 1997 was not due to a shortage of oil, because only two out of a total of two dozen power stations were dependent on heavy fuel oil for power generation, and these were supplied by KEDO (the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization). About 70% of power generated in the DPRK came from hydropower sources, and the serious winter-spring droughts of 1996 and 1997 (and a breakdown on one of the Yalu River's large hydro turbines) created major shortages throughout the country at that time, severely cutting back railway transportation (which was almost entirely dependent on electric power), which in turn resulted in coal supply shortages to the coal-fueled power stations which supplied the remaining 20% of power in the country.Ian Davies, quoted in Beal, "Waters of Prosperity" Failure of the public distribution system North Korea's vulnerability to the floods and famine was exacerbated by the failure of the public distribution system. The regime refused to pursue policies that would have allowed food imports and distribution without discrimination to all regions of the country. During the famine, the urban working class of the cities and towns of the eastern provinces of the country was hit particularly hard.Haggard, Stephan. Nolan, Marcus. 2007. Famine in North Korea. New York; Columbia University Press. p.51 The distribution of food reflected basic principles of stratification of the communist system.Haggard, Stephan. Nolan, Marcus. 2007. Famine in North Korea. New York; Columbia University Press. p.53 Foreign observers claimed food was distributed to people according to their political standing and their degree of loyalty to the state.Haggard, Stephan. Nolan, Marcus. 2007. Famine in North Korea. New York; Columbia University Press. p.54 The structure is as follows (the World Food Program considers 600 grams of cereal per day to be less than a "survival ration"): Category Amount allocated Privileged industrial worker 900 grams/day Ordinary worker 700 grams/day Retired citizen 300 grams/day 2~4-year-old 200 grams/day However, the extended period of food shortages put a strain on the system, and it spread the amount of available food allocations thinly across the groups, affecting 62% of the population who were entirely reliant on public distribution. The system was feeding only 6% of the population by 1997. Year Changes 1987 Reduced 10% 1992 Reduced another 10% 1994 470 grams/day down 420 grams/day 1997 128 grams/day A 2008 study found no variation in children's nutrition between counties that had experienced flooding and those that had not.Schwekendiek Daniel The North Korean standard of living during the famine Social Science and Medicine 66 3 596–608 February 2008 18006130 10.1016/j.socscimed.2007.09.018 Long-term causes The famine was also a result of the culmination of a long series of government decisions that accrued slowly over decades. The attempt to follow a closed-economic model caused the regime to abandon the possibility of engaging in international markets and importing food and instead attempt to reduce demand, e.g., through the 1991 "Let's eat two meals a day" campaign. Attempts to increase exports and earn foreign exchange through the Rajin Sonbong free trade zone in 1991 were unsuccessful – it was located in the most isolated part of North Korea and lacked a clear legal foundation for international business. The North Korean government also missed the opportunity for the short-term option to borrow from abroad to finance food imports after defaulting on foreign loans in the 1970s. Healthcare Health in North Korea Inadequate medical supplies, water and environmental contamination, frequent power failures, and outdated training led to a health care crisis that added to the overall devastation. According to a 1997 UNICEF delegation, hospitals were clean but wards were devoid of even the most rudimentary supplies and equipment – sphygmomanometers, thermometers, scales, kidney dishes, spatulas, IV administration sets, etc. The mission saw numerous patients being treated with homemade beer bottle IV sets, which were not sterile. There was an absence of oral rehydration solution and even the most basic drugs such as analgesics and antibiotics.UNICEF, "DPRK Mission Report", 1997. Widespread malnutrition Health in North Korea#Malnutrition With the widespread destruction of harvests and food reserves, the majority of the population became desperate for food, including areas well established in food production. In 1996, it was reported that people in "the so-called better-off parts of the country, were so hungry that they ate the maize cobs before the crop was fully developed"."Hungry for Peace: International Security, Humanitarian Assistance, and Social Change in North Korea", Hazel Smith, p. 66, United States Institute of Peace, 2005. This reduced expected production of an already ravaged harvest by 50%.FAO/WFP, "Food and Crop Assessment Mission to the DPRK", Rome, December 10, 1997. People everywhere were affected by the crisis, regardless of gender, affiliation or social class. Child malnutrition, indicated as being severely underweight, was found at 3% in 1987, 14% in 1997 and 7% in 2002.Schwekendiek, Daniel. "A socioeconomic history of North Korea", Jefferson and London, McFarland Publishers, 2011, p. 60 +Rice and maize production of North Korea from 1989 to 1997『UNDP[1998]』Lee Suk https://repo.kinu.or.kr/bitstream/2015.oak/827/1/0000605327.pdf The DPRK Famine of 1994–2000: Existence and Impact May 2005 Korea Institute for National Unification 89-8479-292-6 38 https://web.archive.org/web/20230609163204/https://repo.kinu.or.kr/bitstream/2015.oak/827/1/0000605327.pdf 9 June 2023 Year 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 Rice milled (million tons) 3.24 3.36 3.07 3.34 3.56 2.18 1.40 0.98 1.10 Corn harvested (million tons) 4.34 3.90 4.20 3.72 3.94 3.55 1.37 0.83 1.01 Military Songun is North Korea's "Military First" policy, which prioritizes the Korean People's Army in affairs of state and allocates national resources to the "army first". Even though the armed forces were given priority for the distribution of food, this did not mean that they all received generous rations.John Powell, "Testimony to the Sub-committee on East Asia and the Pacific of the US House of Representatives, 2 May 2002", reproduced as "Special Report, North East Asia Peace and Security Network", May 20, 2002. The army was supposed to find ways to grow food to feed itself and to develop industries that would permit it to purchase food and supplies from abroad. The rations received by military personnel were very basic, and "ordinary soldiers of the million-strong army often remained hungry, as did their families, who did not receive preferential treatment simply because a son or daughter was serving in the armed forces".International FIDES Service no. 4144, "Hell on Earth: The Church Must Wipe the Tears", April 23, 1999, http://www.fides.org/english/1999/e19990423.html Fides – e19990423 2011-10-24 https://web.archive.org/web/20030317122115/http://www.fides.org/English/1999/e19990423.html 2003-03-17. Women Women suffered significantly due to the gendered structure of North Korean society, which deemed women responsible for obtaining food, water and fuel for their families, which often included extended families.Smith, Hazel "WFP DPRK Programmes and Activities: A Gender Perspective. Pyongyang: WFP, December 1999. Simultaneously, women had the highest participation rate in the workforce of any country in the world, calculated at 89%.United Nations Development Program and Agricultural Recovery and Environmental Protection. "Report of the Second Thematic Round Table Conference for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea". Found in Annex K: Labor Force and Employment. Geneva: UNDP, June 2000. Therefore, women had to remain in the workforce and obtain supplies for their families. Pregnant and nursing women faced severe difficulties in staying healthy; maternal mortality rates increased to approximately 41 per 1000, while simple complications such as anemia, hemorrhage and premature birth became common due to vitamin deficiency.UNICEF, "Situation of Children and Women (1999)Dilawar Ali Khan, "Democratic People's Republic of Korea: Improving the Quality of Vasic Social Services for the Most Vulnerable Children and Women", mimeo, UNICEF Pyongyang, April 2001. It was estimated that the number of births declined by about 0.3 children per woman during that period.Spoorenberg Thomas 2014 Fertility levels and trends in North Korea http://www.journal-population.com/articles/2014-3-fertility-levels-and-trends-in-north-korea/ Population-E 69 4 433–445 2015-03-27 2015-04-02 https://web.archive.org/web/20150402172531/http://www.journal-population.com/articles/2014-3-fertility-levels-and-trends-in-north-korea/ Children Children, especially those under two years old, were most affected by both the famine and the poverty of the period. The World Health Organization reported death rates for children at 93 out of every 1000, while those of infants were cited at 23 out of every 1000.https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/worldtoday The World Today with Sally Sara – ABC Radio World Today – ABC Radio Mar 11, 2023 Undernourished mothers found it difficult to breast-feed. No suitable alternative to the practice was available. Infant formula was not produced locally, and only a small amount of it was imported. The famine resulted in a population of homeless, migrant children known as Kotjebi.Nothing to Envy: Love, Life and Death in North Korea Demick Barbara Fourth Estate 2010 978-0-7322-8661-3 Sydney 160 Barbara Demick Estimated number of deaths The exact number of deaths during the acute phase of the crisis, from 1994 to 1998, is uncertain. According to the researcher Andrei Lankov, both the extreme high and low ends of the estimates are considered inaccurate.Lankov Andrei The Real North Korea: Life and Politics in the Failed Stalinist Utopia 2015 Oxford University Press Oxford 978-0-19-939003-8 81 In 2001 and 2007, independent groups of researchers have estimated that between 600,000 and 1 million people, or 3 to 5 percent of the pre-crisis population, died due to starvation and hunger-related illness.Daniel Goodkind and Loraine West, "The North Korean Famine and Its Demographic Impact", Population and Development Review 27, no. 2 (June 2001)Stephen Haggard and Marcus Noland, Famine in North Korea: Markets, Aid, and Reform (New York: Columbia University Press, 2007), pp. 72–76 In 1998, US Congressional staffers who visited the country reported that: "Therefore, we gave a range of estimates, from 300,000 to 800,000 dying per year, peaking in 1997. That would put the total number of deaths from the North Korean food shortage at between 900,000 and 2.4 million between 1995 and 1998".http://www.tomcoyner.com/kirk_report.htm https://web.archive.org/web/20101225021520/http://tomcoyner.com/kirk_report.htm Final Reportto Benjamin A. Gilman (R-NY) Chairman, International Relations Committee U.S. House of Representatives Mission to North Korea and China August 11–23, 1998 International Relations Committee U.S. House of Representatives Dec 25, 2010 www.tomcoyner.com Mar 11, 2023 W. Courtland Robinson's team found 245,000 "excess" deaths (an elevated mortality rate as a result of premature death), 12 percent of the population in one affected region. Taking those results as the upper limit and extrapolating across the entire North Korean population across the country's provinces produces an upper limit of 2,000,000 famine-related deaths.They Think They're Normal p. 155 Andrew Natsios and others estimated 2–3 million deaths.Andrew S. Natsios states, "From 1994 to 1998, 2–3 million people died of starvation and hunger-related illnesses, and the famine has generated a range of social and political effects". Natsios, "The Politics of Famine in North Korea" (Washington, D.C.: United States Institute of Peace, August 2, 1999.) According to research by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2011, the likely range of excess deaths between 1993 and 2000 was between 500,000 and 600,000, and a total of 600,000 to 1,000,000 excess deaths from the year 1993 to the year 2008.April 2017https://paa2011.populationassociation.org/papers/111030 A Reassessment of Mortality in North Korea, 1993–2008 3 Daniel Goodkind Loraine West Peter Johnson U.S. Census Bureau, Population Division 28 March 2011 8 November 2014 2 March 2026 https://web.archive.org/web/20260302043338/https://paa2011.populationassociation.org/papers/111030 Black markets At the same time, the years of famine were also marked by a dramatic revival of illegal, private market activities. Smuggling across the border boomed, and up to 250,000 North Koreans moved to China. https://www.nap.edu/read/10086/chapter/5 Forced Migration and Mortality 2001 10.17226/10086 25057553 978-0-309-07334-9 National Research Council (US) Roundtable on the Demography of Forced Migration Reed H. E. Keely C. B. 2001nap..book10086N 10419/170700 Amartya Sen had mentioned bad governance as one of the structural and economic problems which contributed to the famine, but it seems that the famine also led to widespread government corruption, which nearly resulted in the collapse of old government controls and regulations.Stephen Haggard and Marcus Noland, 2007, Famine in North Korea: Markets, Aid, and Reform, New York: Columbia University Press. When fuel became scarce while demand for logistics rose, so-called servi-cha (써비차 yes, "service cars") operations formed, wherein an entrepreneur provides transportation to businesses, institutions and individuals without access to other means of transportation, while the car is formally owned by a legitimate enterprise or unit that also provides transportation permits. http://www.dailynk.com/english/read_print.php?cataId=nk02900&num=6954 Servi-Cha: the Lifeblood of the People's Economy Im Jeong Jin 28 October 2010 Daily NK 5 December 2010 https://web.archive.org/web/20130928062628/http://www.dailynk.com/english/read_print.php?cataId=nk02900&num=6954 28 September 2013 dmy-all With the desperation derived from famine and informal trade and commercialization, North Koreans developed their black market, and moreover, they were surviving by adapting.David Kang, "They Think They're Normal: Enduring Questions and New Research on North Korea", International Security, Vol. 36 No. 3, Winter 2011/12, pp. 141–71 Andrei Lankov has described the process as the "natural death of North Korean Stalinism". http://www.nbr.org/publications/asia_policy/pdf/ap1-lankov.pdf The Natural Death of North Korean Stalinism Asia Policy, January 2006 2006-01-01 17 August 2007 Andrei Lankov Andrei Lankov https://web.archive.org/web/20070724031859/http://www.nbr.org/publications/asia_policy/pdf/ap1-lankov.pdf 24 July 2007 dmy-all The average official salary in 2011 was equivalent to US$2 per month. However, the actual monthly income could be estimated to be around US$15 as most North Koreans were earning money from illegal small businesses; trade, subsistence farming, and handicrafts. As of 2011, the illegal economy was largely dominated by women. That was because men were expected to attend their places of official work despite most of the factories being non-functional. https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2011/10/304_96327.html NK is no Stalinist country The Korea Times 2011-10-09 9 October 2011 Andrei Lankov Andrei Lankov International response Initial assistance to North Korea started as early as 1990, with small-scale support from religious groups in South Korea and assistance from UNICEF."Humanitarian Aid Toward North Korea: A Global Peace-Building Process", East Asian Review, Winter 2001. In August 1995, North Korea made an official request for humanitarian aid and the international community responded accordingly:Staff (January 2013) Quantity Reporting – Food Aid to North Korea https://web.archive.org/web/20141224072546/http://www.wfp.org/fais/reports/quantities-delivered-report/run/donor/All/cat/All/year/All/recipient/Democratic%20People's%20Republic%20of%20Korea%20(DPRK)/code/All/mode/All/basis/0/subtotal/0 2014-12-24 World Food Program, Retrieved 2 February 2013. + Food aid by year (thousands of tons) Donor 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 TotalS. Korea 150 3 60 48 12 352 198 458 542 407 493 80 431 59 23 3,314China 100 150 151 201 280 420 330 212 132 451207 264 116 3,015U.S.A. 22 193 231 589 351 319 222 47 105 28 171 121 1 2,400Others 394 380 501 361 198 248 571 168 143 201 125 20 26 145 61 71 47 3,661Total 544 505 904 791 1,000 1,231 1,508 1,178 944 845 1,097 307 721 375 298 95 4712,390thumb|A South Korean relief caravan of 501 cattle in 50 vehicles bound for North Korea, Oct. 27, 1998. Beginning in 1996, the U.S. also started shipping food aid to North Korea through the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) to combat the famine. Shipments peaked in 1999 at nearly 600,000 tons making the U.S. the largest foreign aid donor to the country at the time. Under the Bush administration, aid was drastically reduced year after year from 320,000 tons in 2001 to 28,000 tons in 2005.http://www.globalpolicy.org/socecon/hunger/relief/2005/0520nkorea.htm US Has Put Food Aid for North Korea on Hold 1 August 2007 Solomon, Jay 2005-05-20 The Wall Street Journal https://web.archive.org/web/20070714092016/http://www.globalpolicy.org///socecon/hunger/relief/2005/0520nkorea.htm July 14, 2007 The Bush administration was criticized for "using food as a weapon" during talks over the North's nuclear weapons program, but insisted the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) criteria were the same for all countries and the situation in North Korea had "improved significantly since its collapse in the mid-1990s".September 2026 South Korea (before the Lee Myung-bak government) and China remained the largest donors of food aid to North Korea. The U.S. objects to this manner of donating food due to the North Korean state's refusal to allow donor representatives to supervise the distribution of their aid inside North Korea. Such supervision would ensure that aid does not get seized and sold by well-connected elites or diverted to feed North Korea's large military. In 2005, South Korea and China together provided almost 1 million tons of food aid, each contributing half.http://hrw.org/english/docs/2006/10/10/nkorea14381.htm North Korea: Ending Food Aid Would Deepen Hunger 2 August 2007 2006-10-11 Human Rights Watch https://web.archive.org/web/20070929135636/http://hrw.org/english/docs/2006/10/10/nkorea14381.htm 29 September 2007 Humanitarian aid from North Korea's neighbors has been cut off at times in order to provoke North Korea into resuming boycotted talks. For example, South Korea decided to "postpone consideration" of 500,000 tons of rice for the North in 2006, but the idea of providing food as a clear incentive (as opposed to resuming "general humanitarian aid") has been avoided.https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/13/AR2006071300751.html S. Korea Suspends Food Aid to North 2 August 2007 Faiola, Anthony 2006-07-14 The Washington Post There have also been aid disruptions due to widespread theft of railway cars used by mainland China to deliver food relief.https://www.ft.com/content/bfc9a8a8-7d9c-11dc-9f47-0000779fd2ac China halts rail freight to North Korea 18 October 2007 2007-10-18 Financial Times Post-famine developments As of 2019, North Korea had not yet resumed reliable self-sufficiency in food production and as a result, it periodically relies on external food aid from South Korea, China, the United States, Japan, the European Union and other countries.https://apnews.com/fe394eef5f7848f5be284d21a4b7624a North Korea, seeking food aid, links sanctions to shortages Talmadge Eric Associated Press News 22 March 2019 2 April 2019 In 2002, North Korea requested that food supplies no longer be delivered.Woo-Cumings, Meredith (2002). The political ecology of famine: the North Korean catastrophe and its lessons https://web.archive.org/web/20130927203219/http://personal.lse.ac.uk/SIDEL/images/WooFamine.pdf 2013-09-27 In 2005, the World Food Programme (WFP) 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 in order to help rice farmers.Brooke, James (1 June 2005) North Korea, Facing Food Shortages, Mobilizes Millions From the Cities to Help Rice Farmers The New York Times, Retrieved 30 January 2013. Buckley Sarah North Korea's problem with food BBC News September 23, 2005 https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4072280.stm In 2012, the WFP reported that food would be sent to North Korea as soon as possible. The food would first be processed by a local processor and it would then be delivered directly to North Korean citizens.September 2026 Agricultural production increased from about 2.7 million metric tons in 1997 to 4.2 million metric tons in 2004.http://internationalrelations.house.gov/archives/109/4-06usaid.pdf Report on U.S. Humanitarian assistance to North Koreans 1 August 2007 2006-04-15 United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs https://web.archive.org/web/20070309205512/http://internationalrelations.house.gov/archives/109/4-06usaid.pdf 9 March 2007 In 2008, food shortages continued to be a problem in North Korea, although less so than in the mid to late 1990s. Flooding in 2007 and reductions in food aid exacerbated the problem. Branigan Tania UN fears tragedy over North Korean food shortage The Guardian April 17, 2008 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/apr/17/korea.food In 2011, during a visit to North Korea, former US President Jimmy Carter reported that one third of children in North Korea were malnourished and stunted in their growth because of a lack of food. He also said that the North Korean government had reduced daily food intake from 1400 to 700 kcal kJ on flip in 2011.Bristow, Michael Ex-leaders head for North Korea BBC News Asia-Pacific, 25 April 2011, Retrieved 25 April 2011. Some scholars believed that North Korea was purposefully exaggerating the food shortage, aiming to receive additional food supplies for its planned mass-celebrations of Kim Il Sung's 100th birthday in 2012 by means of foreign aid.North Korea flouts ban on luxury goods, South Korea charges, Los Angeles Times, 22 July 2011. Escaped North Koreans reported in September 2010 that starvation had returned to the nation. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11244825 BBC News — Tales of starvation and death in North Korea BBC 2010 30 January 2013 North Korean pre-school children were reported to be an average of 3 to(-) 4 cm in 4 in shorter than South Koreans, which some researchers believe can only be explained by conditions of famine and malnutrition. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17774210 BBC News — Are North Koreans really three inches shorter than South Koreans? BBC 2012 4 November 2013 Most people only eat meat on public holidays, namely Kim Jong Il's birthday, the Day of the Shining Star on February 16 and Kim Il Sung's birthday, the Day of the Sun on April 15. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/8809102/The-unpalatable-appetites-of-Kim-Jong-il.html The unpalatable appetites of Kim Jong-il October 8, 2011 8 October 2011 Demick Barbara One report by the Tokyo Shimbun in April 2012 claimed that since the death of Kim Jong Il in December 2011, around 20,000 people had starved to death in South Hwanghae Province.http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2012/04/23/2012042300587.html 20,000 N.Koreans Die of Starvation 25 June 2018 Another report by the Japanese Asia Press agency in January 2013 claimed that in North and South Hwanghae provinces more than 10,000 people had died of famine. Reports of sporadic cannibalism were made in The Sunday Times and other international outlets.Williams, Robb (28 January 2013) North Korean cannibalism fears amid claims starving people forced to desperate measures The Independent, Retrieved 30 January 2013. On the other hand, the WFP has reported malnutrition and food shortages, but not famine.http://www.wfp.org/countries/korea-democratic-peoples-republic-dprk/overview Korea, Democratic People's Republic (DPRK) | WFP | United Nations World Food Programme – Fighting Hunger Worldwide WFP In 2016, UN Committee on the Rights of the Child reported a steady decline in the infant mortality rate since 2008.North Korea mortality rates are declining, UN group says http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2016/06/01/North-Korea-mortality-rates-are-declining-UN-group-says/6591464832413/ Elizabeth Shim UPI 1 June 2016 An academic analysis in 2016 found that the situation had greatly improved since the 1990s and that North Korea's levels of health and nutrition were on par with other developing countries.Nutrition and Health in North Korea: What's New, What's Changed and Why It Matters https://www.academia.edu/25554321 Hazel Smith North Korean Review Spring 2016 8 In 2017, the analyst Andrei Lankov argued that previous predictions of a return to famine were unfounded, and that the days of starvation had long since passed.http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2014/03/n-korea-myth-starvation-2014319124439924471.html N Korea and the myth of starvation Andrei Lankov Aljazeera 27 March 2017 A survey in 2017 found that the famine had skewed North Korea's demography, impacting particularly male babies. Women aged 20–24 made up 4% of the population, while men in the same age group made up only 2.5%.https://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-unicef/tackling-north-koreas-chronically-poor-sewage-not-rocket-science-u-n-idUSKBN1JG2Q4 Tackling North Korea's chronically poor sewage 'not rocket science': U.N. Tom Miles Reuters 21 June 2018 Chronic or recurrent malnutrition dropped from 28 percent in 2012 to 19 percent in 2017.https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/better-indicators-children-dpr-korea-challenges-persist-new-data-situation-children Better indicators for children in DPR Korea but challenges persist, new data on the situation of children and women shows www.unicef.org 25 June 2018 In June 2019, after a report made by the United Nations stated that North Korea had experienced the worst harvests in over a decade along with severe food shortages that affected 40% of North Korea's population, South Korea enacted a plan to provide US$8 million worth of food aid to North Korea. The South Korean government's aid to North Korea is widely viewed as having a political agenda of improving inter-Korean relations, despite the South's government's insistence on separating the aid from politics.https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2019/06/09/730441007/why-aid-wont-fix-north-koreas-recurring-food-shortages Why South Korea Is Sending $8 Million In Food Aid To North Korea NPR.org en 2019-09-25 See also North Korea 1990s Agriculture in North Korea Economy of North Korea Foreign relations of North Korea History of North Korea Human rights in North Korea Japan–North Korea relations Kotjebi North Korea–China relations North Korea–South Korea relations North Korea–Russia relations North Korea–United States relations Politics of North Korea Potato production in North Korea Special Period Sunshine Policy World Food Programme References Further reading Lankov, Andrei. "Trouble Brewing: The North Korean Famine of 1954–1955 and Soviet Attitudes toward North Korea". Journal of Cold War Studies 22:2 (Spring 2020) pp:3–25. online Natsios Andrew S. The Great North Korean Famine 2001 Institute of Peace Press Washington 978-1-929223-34-3 Vollertsen Norbert Inside North Korea: Diary of a Mad Place 2004 Encounter Books San Francisco 978-1-893554-87-0 External links Newspaper account (The Daily Telegraph) including famine deaths of kindergarten children. Korea Forest Service Famine in Russian famine (disambiguation) Category:1994 in North Korea Category:1995 in North Korea Category:1996 in North Korea Category:1997 in North Korea Category:1998 in North Korea Category:1999 in North Korea Category:1990s famines Category:Agriculture in North Korea Category:Famines in Asia Category:Kim Jong Il Category:Disasters in North Korea