Emergency food aid as a means of political persuasion in the North Korean famine

Third World Quarterly

Volumn 20, Issue 2, 1999, Pages 371-386

  Aaltola, Mika ^a  

^a TAMPERE UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY   (Finland)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

AID POLICY; FOOD AID; HUMANITARIAN AID;

NORTH KOREA;

EID: 0032799379     PISSN: 01436597     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/01436599913802     Document Type: Article

References (11)

1. G M Guess, The Politics of United States Foreign Aid, London: Croom Helm, 1987, p 3.
2. P Bauer & B Yamey, in W.S. Thompson (cd), Foreign aid: what is at stake, Third World: Premises of US Policy, New York: Whitakcr, 1983, p 119.
3. M Mauss, The Gift: Forms and Functions of Exchange in Archaic Societies, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1980.
4. Some estimates put the number of deaths as high as 500 000 to 2 000 000 people. However, any careful analysis of the situation by Western institutions was impossible because they did not have the access to many areas or to official records.
5. According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCIIA) database, the value of food aid to North Korea increased from $34 million in 1996 to S220 million in 1998. Whereas the European Union had been the biggest aid donor in 1996, the USA was the biggest single donor state in 1998, with a 79% share of total aid. The Democratic People's Republic of Korea used its meagre resources to purchase 300 000 tons of grain from China in 1998.
6. J D Montgomery, The Politics of Foreign Aid: American Experience in Southeast Asia, New York: Fredcrik A Praeger, 1962.
7. Kratochwil, among many other commentators, maintains that the template for the modern concept of state sovereignty 'was provided by the Dominium (less often called proprietas) of the property holder under Roman private law'. This right gave the property's owner exclusive rights to it, irrespective of the restrictions put on his/her right to manage, use and exchange it. F. Kratochwil, 'Sovereignty as dominium: is there a right of humanitarian intervention', in G M Lyons & M Mastanduno (eds), Beyond Westphalia? Stale Sovereignty and International Inten'cntion, London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995, p 22.
8. After an agreement was reached allowing South Korea to deliver food aid with its own logos attached, the South Korean Unification Ministry stated, 'North Korea's flood victims will be able to perceive our care more accurately as a result of the agreement' (Accociatcd Press, 26 May 1997).
9. The power-political goal of by passing governmental channels in the famine stricken country concerned arc helped by humanitarian organisations' strategies of 'direct delivery'.
10. The USA was to provide Noth Korea with new light-water reactors to replace old graphite-moderated reactors, which were feared to the producing fissile materials for the production of nuclear weapons. Additionally, the USA promised to supply North Korea with 500 000 tons of heavy oil yearly.
11. It is worth noting that KCNA reported on 4 September 1998 that the satellite 'is now transmitting the melody of the immortal revolutionary hymns "Song of General Kim II Sung" and "Song of General Kim Jong II" and the Morse signals "Juche Korea" in 27 MHz'. The satellite, beaming North Korean national 'emblems', is illustrative of the importance placed on the legitimacy and visibility of one's national signs.