Co-authors Marcus Noland and Stephan Haggard set out to understand the story behind the death toll of the North Korean famine. KoreAm spoke with Noland about his research on the roots and repercussions of the devastating famine.

 

Your book talks about how bilateral aid from China and South Korea does more harm than good. Can you elaborate?

It goes directly to the North Korean central government, which itself is a large part of the problem. The other problem is that it is provided in the form of rice. If you provide barley or millet, it’s probably going to go to relatively poor people. To my knowledge, the Chinese government does not do any kind of monitoring. The South Korean government has been shamed into increasing its monitoring, but I think it’s fair to say that their monitoring program leaves a lot to be desired.

What are their justifications for not going through the World Food Programme?

In the case of South Korea, the justification normally given is that they have a special relationship with North Korea due to the divided nature of the Korean peninsula. It appears that its aid to North Korea is really a form of regime support; a kind of political bribe.

That sounds very bleak. Is there a solution?

The ultimate solution is for the North Koreans to have an economy that is sufficiently functional and vibrant that it generates foreign exchange so that they can buy their own food on the market, just like everybody else.

How did researching and writing this book change the way you look at the world?

I’ve become more religious. Part of what we’re trying to do is to affect policy, but for me at least part of this is an act of repentance because hundreds of thousands, if not a million, people died, I believe, needlessly.

 

 

-Nina Ahn