North Korea 's Food Crisis After The Cold War And American Food Aid To Korea

The North Korean food crisis began in1994and evolved into a major faminewith high death rates. Although catastrophic floods in1995precipitated the foodcrisis in North Korea, it was at most a secondary cause of the famine. The majorproblem facing the DPRK in food supply and food production is structural. All thetriggering factors such as the relative scarcity and low fecundity of arable land, theineffectiveness of economic policy, and the collapse of Soviet Union and Easternbloc should be taken into account. The United States in1995began providing theDPRK with foreign assistance, which include development and humanitarianassistance. The aid has totaled over$1.3billion, about50%of which has paid forfood aid.In this paper we start from the causes of the famine and the central government’sresponse to it, as well as the convulsive effects of the famine on North Koreansociety, political system, and military. Then we consider the history of U.S.-Korearelations in the post-Cold War era to check out the political background of U.S. foodaid policy toward DPRK. The details of U.S. food aid to DPRK are also analyzed inthe last chapter.The international food aid is not a viable long-term solution to the North Koreanfood crisis, even though it has alleviated the food situation and establishedpreventive capacity. Given the amount of evidence, we find that only the trade-andreform-centered strategies are likely to provide a sustainable solution to NorthKorea’s problems.