Toll from famine grows in North Korea

Christian Century, Oct 8, 1997

World Vision, the evangelical international relief agency, says a survey it has taken along the North Korea--China border suggests that somewhere between 500,000 and 1 million Koreans have died as a result of the devastating combined impact of floods, drought and famine. "The tragedy is that there have been widespread deaths this year alone and that many more people may meet the same fate over the next several months," said Andrew Natsios, World Vision vice-president.

The group's estimate of the number of famine-related deaths comes from an admittedly informal survey of 400 North Koreans, as well as interviews with Chinese and Russians who have visited North Korea. The survey, taken in the northern region of the country, reported that an average of 15 percent of the people have died in certain villages.

International aid groups, including a score of religious and secular nongovernmental organizations and United Nations agencies, have long warned that the food situation in North Korea is deteriorating and that children especially are vulnerable to starvation. But the estimate by World Vision is one of the first to use an actual figure. "A very, very conservative estimate of the mortality rates this year has indicated at least a half-million people have died this year," Natsios told a news conference in New York September 16. "I think it's probably closer to 1 to 2 million."

Some South Korean experts on North Korea have disputed World Vision's death estimates. An official of South Korea's Unification Ministry said, "We can only guess at how many North Koreans have died of starvation. But a figure of 500,000 to 2 million deaths seems to be an exaggeration." UN officials in North Korea also expressed doubt about the figures but noted that it is nearly impossible to gather good information on the numbers. "I have my doubts about the survey," said Brigitta Karlgren, the World Food Program's director in North Korea. Karlgren added that her office has no statistics on the number of deaths by starvation.

The World Vision survey comes as officials from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization are meeting with North Korean officials to assess what appear to be gloomy prospects for any improvement in North Korea's food situation this year. "Guarded optimism expressed earlier for some recovery in food production this year is now replaced by very serious alarm at food insecurity problems for the coming months and year ahead," the UN's FAO and World Food Program said in a recent joint statement.

Church relief groups have poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into famine relief efforts in Korea--a mere drop in the bucket compared to the need. "It is imperative that our government, as well as nations throughout the world, stop pretending this so-called `food shortage' is anything but a full-scale famine of significant proportions," Natsios said.

According to World Vision, anecdotal information from North Koreans in China includes stories of corpses "everywhere on the streets" of some villages and of people reusing coffins to save wood. While calling on the U.S. and other Western governments to step up aid to North Korea, Natsios was also critical of the country's secrecy and tight security, as well as its refusal to allow the media to cover the famine without "government mincers." He said the North Korean government needs to be pressured to open up access for food aid and recommended that no more aid flow through Pyongyang, the Korean capital, but instead be delivered through eastern ports and across the Chinese border.