It is amazing to me that people continue to think humanitarian aid will be distributed in North Korea transparently and to the people who really need it:
Kenneth Bae, the president of Nehemia Global Initiative, speaks during a session of the International Forum for One Korea in Seoul Dragon City, Thursday. From left are Ahn Chan-il, head of the World North Korea Research Center; Greg Scarlatoiu, executive director of the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea; Kang Young-sik, the secretary-general of humanitarian aid group Korean Sharing Movement (KSM); Lee Young-jong, the director at Unification Research Center of JoongAng Daily; Bae; Kim Hun-il, the secretary-general of Unitas; and Joo Hyun-lip, head of projects at the North Korea Service for Peace Foundation. / Courtesy of Global Peace Foundation
Humanitarian aid for North Korea should continue to better connect the people in the country with the outside world despite heightened missile threats by its regime, civic activists said Thursday.
“North Koreans should be informed that the outside world actually cares about them,” said Kenneth Bae, president of the Nehemia Global Initiative who was once detained in a North Korean labor camp. “Helping North Koreans open their minds to the outside world is critical to prepare for a unified Korea.”
Kang Young-sik, secretary-general of the humanitarian aid group the Korean Sharing Movement (KSM), added, “Humanitarian assistance still does the role of enhancing North Koreans’ human rights. As long as transparency of the distribution process is secured, it should be further facilitated.”
These views were shared during the International Forum for One Korea sponsored by the Global Peace Foundation (GPF) and the U.S.-based think tank the EastWest Institute. [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but any aid to North Korea will be considered tribute to Kim Jong-un. Additionally every dollar of aid to North Korea is one more dollar they can invest in their military.
Lemme know when Kenneth Bae’s done apologizing to everyone for being a dumbass and getting arrested in the DPRK; after that he can give all the money his book made about his dumbassery to charity. Maybe then I’ll give a F what he has to say, doubt it though.
blueberry muffin mix
7 years ago
Can’t tell wbether Bae is just a dumbass or a commie shill.
guitard
7 years ago
“Additionally every dollar of aid to North Korea is one more dollar they can invest in their military.”
That’s not necessarily true. I don’t know if they are still active, but I spoke at length with a guy in charge of an NGO that provided medical aid to North Korea. Mostly basic medical items and medicines. The way this NGO worked was that the NGO had to have full control over internal distribution – which was actually a stipulation made by the donors to the NGO. The guy said North Korean authorities balked at first, but then relented when he said the NGO put its foot down and said either we get full control over internal distribution or no deal.
@Guitard, the non-profit group would never have to be in North Korea in the first place if the Kim regime invested their resources into the welfare of their people. Instead they invest heavily in their military and then let the less desirable population suffer or rely on outside aid to sustain them.
As far as control of internal distribution I am very dubious that any aid group had full control to travel around North Korea and deliver aid to whoever they wanted to. If that was the case they should have headed straight to the labor camps to provide aid to the forced laborers there.
guitard
7 years ago
“As far as control of internal distribution I am very dubious that any aid group had full control to travel around North Korea and deliver aid to whoever they wanted to.”
It’s been seven or eight years and I can’t remember the guy’s name. He was a LTC or COL in the US Army Reserves and a doctor in Kansas. He traveled to North Korea 2-3 times a year. IIRC, when his NGO first got started, they didn’t do the direct distribution and were very suspicious about where the supplies were going. He had to answer to the donors (Christian organizations mostly), and was told if he can’t guarantee that the supplies are going to the people, then they were going to send the donations elsewhere. At first the North Koreans balked, but when he made it really clear that they were going to turn around and leave if they didn’t get to have full control over distribution, the North Koreans finally relented.
My memory is a little hazy, but IIRC, they had established some pretty good methods for ensuring the supplies didn’t get collected up by the regime. Part of it being the relationships they established over time with several government officials, clinic doctors and hospital directors whom they met on each visit.
I know I’ve read online about this guy and the operation before, but I can’t find anything. I’ll keep googling and hopefully can find a good article about the NGO.
blueberry muffin mix
7 years ago
As harsh as it sounds, every grain of rice given to starving norks props up the fat commie rocketboy.
Every bit of assistance someone gives to help them survive is just that much less the regime needs to spend, enabling even greater military spending.
If one really wants the norks to stop their threats and rejoin the rest of the world, one must support a total embargo. And no food for starving children.
Because until the people wake up and through out the monsters in charge, it will just get worse and worse…
J6Junkie
7 years ago
I’m surprised the LTC didn’t end up as hostage bait but good on him and his organization if they were able to handle the Parasite men.
Flyingsword
7 years ago
None of the aid reaches the intended people. NGOs will try to tell us they have all these great controls, but I don’t believe any of them. Should never given nK aid in 95; propped the regime up enough to hang on and look where we are now. Idiots feeding a regime that vows to kill you.
The US Committee for Human Rights in North Korea published a study a few years back, and part of the data showed that as food aid to NK went up in the late 1990s, NK spending on food imports went down. In other words, they used the aid to solidify and existing situation of shortage rather than to actually take care of their starving citizens. The money saved by not having to pay for imports went, just a guess here, into luxuries and weapons. So the conundrum for aid agencies of all kinds is this: is it better to cut off aid, because it doesn’t really ever achieve its objectives and only props up an inhumane system, or is it better to continue aid, because at least some ordinary North Koreans will be assisted? Bae seems to be lining himself up on the second proposition, but it would be nice to know if he has actually thought the dilemma through at all.
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Lemme know when Kenneth Bae’s done apologizing to everyone for being a dumbass and getting arrested in the DPRK; after that he can give all the money his book made about his dumbassery to charity. Maybe then I’ll give a F what he has to say, doubt it though.
Can’t tell wbether Bae is just a dumbass or a commie shill.
“Additionally every dollar of aid to North Korea is one more dollar they can invest in their military.”
That’s not necessarily true. I don’t know if they are still active, but I spoke at length with a guy in charge of an NGO that provided medical aid to North Korea. Mostly basic medical items and medicines. The way this NGO worked was that the NGO had to have full control over internal distribution – which was actually a stipulation made by the donors to the NGO. The guy said North Korean authorities balked at first, but then relented when he said the NGO put its foot down and said either we get full control over internal distribution or no deal.
Should have let Bae rot forever in the gulags.
@Guitard, the non-profit group would never have to be in North Korea in the first place if the Kim regime invested their resources into the welfare of their people. Instead they invest heavily in their military and then let the less desirable population suffer or rely on outside aid to sustain them.
As far as control of internal distribution I am very dubious that any aid group had full control to travel around North Korea and deliver aid to whoever they wanted to. If that was the case they should have headed straight to the labor camps to provide aid to the forced laborers there.
“As far as control of internal distribution I am very dubious that any aid group had full control to travel around North Korea and deliver aid to whoever they wanted to.”
It’s been seven or eight years and I can’t remember the guy’s name. He was a LTC or COL in the US Army Reserves and a doctor in Kansas. He traveled to North Korea 2-3 times a year. IIRC, when his NGO first got started, they didn’t do the direct distribution and were very suspicious about where the supplies were going. He had to answer to the donors (Christian organizations mostly), and was told if he can’t guarantee that the supplies are going to the people, then they were going to send the donations elsewhere. At first the North Koreans balked, but when he made it really clear that they were going to turn around and leave if they didn’t get to have full control over distribution, the North Koreans finally relented.
My memory is a little hazy, but IIRC, they had established some pretty good methods for ensuring the supplies didn’t get collected up by the regime. Part of it being the relationships they established over time with several government officials, clinic doctors and hospital directors whom they met on each visit.
I know I’ve read online about this guy and the operation before, but I can’t find anything. I’ll keep googling and hopefully can find a good article about the NGO.
As harsh as it sounds, every grain of rice given to starving norks props up the fat commie rocketboy.
Every bit of assistance someone gives to help them survive is just that much less the regime needs to spend, enabling even greater military spending.
If one really wants the norks to stop their threats and rejoin the rest of the world, one must support a total embargo. And no food for starving children.
Because until the people wake up and through out the monsters in charge, it will just get worse and worse…
I’m surprised the LTC didn’t end up as hostage bait but good on him and his organization if they were able to handle the Parasite men.
None of the aid reaches the intended people. NGOs will try to tell us they have all these great controls, but I don’t believe any of them. Should never given nK aid in 95; propped the regime up enough to hang on and look where we are now. Idiots feeding a regime that vows to kill you.
Article from 2011 about how well aid was controlled.
http://english.donga.com/List/3/all/26/400570/1
The US Committee for Human Rights in North Korea published a study a few years back, and part of the data showed that as food aid to NK went up in the late 1990s, NK spending on food imports went down. In other words, they used the aid to solidify and existing situation of shortage rather than to actually take care of their starving citizens. The money saved by not having to pay for imports went, just a guess here, into luxuries and weapons. So the conundrum for aid agencies of all kinds is this: is it better to cut off aid, because it doesn’t really ever achieve its objectives and only props up an inhumane system, or is it better to continue aid, because at least some ordinary North Koreans will be assisted? Bae seems to be lining himself up on the second proposition, but it would be nice to know if he has actually thought the dilemma through at all.