Day: October 4, 2022

North Korea is among 45 countries worldwide requiring external assistance for food to feed its population due to economic constraints and an expected poor harvest this year, according to a report by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations.

In its quarterly report “Crop Prospects and Quarterly Global Report Food Situation” issued on Sept. 30, the FAO evaluates the grain production and food situation of low-income countries around the globe. 

The 47-page report notes that high inflation rates and challenging macroeconomic environments are aggravating food insecurity conditions globally, particularly in low-income food-deficit countries.  

“In the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, persisting economic constraints, exacerbated by expectations of a reduced 2022 harvest, may worsen the food insecurity situation, with large numbers of people suffering from low levels of food consumption and very poor dietary diversity,” the report says, using the country’s official name.

Chronic food shortages and dependency on international food assistance are nothing new in North Korea, a diplomatically isolated country weighed down by its centrally controlled planned economy and its juche, or self-reliance philosophy, and plagued by harsh weather.  

North Korea has been classified as a country lacking general access to food and in need of external food aid since the FAO began its research on the topic in 2007 

The FAO forecasts that North Korea, along with Nepal, Myanmar and Sri Lanka will suffer from food shortages this year due to lower-than-average grain yields.

The report also pointed to worsening weather conditions, such as poor rainfall, as one of the reasons for North Korea’s below-normal agricultural production. 

In addition, as the worsening economic situation in North Korea continues, imports of essential agricultural products and humanitarian goods have fallen sharply, making North Korea’s 26 million people feel more vulnerable to food security this year.

In particular, the FAO pointed out that the decline in the nation’s grain harvests is causing most of the population to suffer from low food consumption and poor diets.

However, like the previous report, the current document did not specify the amount of grain that North Korea must import due to food shortages there.

In its December 2021 report, the FAO estimated that North Korea needed more than 1.06 million metric tons of food imports to make up for food shortages between November 2020 and October 2021.

Problem lies with Kin Jong Un

In light of the current situation, U.S. experts say Pyongyang’s rejection of food aid from other countries has worsened the severe food shortage.

“[North Korean leader] Kim Jong Un has refused nearly all offers of aid, especially from both the U.S. and South Korea,” David Maxwell, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told RFA on Monday.

“Unfortunately, there is nothing the U.S., South Korea, or the international community can do about the food shortages in North Korea unless Kim Jong Un is willing to accept aid in accordance with standard procedures for distribution transparency and accountability.”

“The Korean people in the north are suffering solely because of the deliberate policy decisions by Kim Jong Un to prioritize nuclear weapons and missile development over the welfare of the North Korean people,” Maxwell said. “The international community wants to relieve their suffering, but the problem lies solely with Kim Jong Un.”

Soo Kim, a policy analyst focused on national security and policy issues in the Indo-Pacific at the RAND Corporation, agreed that the Kim regime is the greatest obstacle to getting international food aid to North Koreans. 

“Kim does not prioritize the lives of his people, and he is willing to let the North Korean population suffer as long as it does not adversely impact his leadership and interests,” she said.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) forecast in its “Rice Outlook: September 2022” report that global rice production will increase while North Korea’s rice production will fall further this year compared to 2021.

The USDA forecast that North Korea will produce 1.36 million metric tons of dehusked rice this year, 38,000 metric tons less than the amount produced in 2021. 

The agency also predicted that the country’s rice imports this year will reach 180,000 metric tons, up 30,000 metric tons from 2021.

A South Korean scholar’s analysis of satellite images of North Korea appear to back up findings and forecasts in the two reports, indicating expected significant decreases this year due to flood damage in about 30% of the country’s rice fields. 

Chung Songhak, deputy director of the National Land and Satellite Information Research Institute at Kyungpook National University in South Korea, cited images of Pyongyang’s Mangyongdae district captured by European Space Agency’s Sentinel-2B satellites on Sept. 12, showing several areas of damaged rice fields where the soil has been exposed.

By region, rice growth at cooperative farms in Pyongyang’s Mangyongdae district was the lowest, followed by Pongsan and Unpa counties in North Hwanghae province, Sunchon city in South Pyongan province, and Chaeryong county in South Hwanghae province, Chung said.

Four factors have affected rice farming in North Korea this year, he said. 

“First, the lack of water due to high temperatures and the drought from spring earlier this year,” Chung said. “Second, there was not enough manpower mobilization for the cooperative farms due to the [coronavirus] quarantine and movement control of residents.”

“Third, it rained heavily after rice planting was over,” he said, citing record-levels of heavy rains damaging agricultural lands, with paddy banks collapsing and rice braids washed away.”

“Fourth, the damaged paddy fields could not be restored, and rice did not grow well,” he said. 

Translated by Leejin J. Chung for RFA Korean. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres joined world leaders in condemning North Korea’s test launch of a missile across Japan on Tuesday, as a top South Korean diplomat warned that inaction by the U.N. Security Council would raise doubts about the body’s “viability and relevance.”

The North Korean missile flew over 2,800 miles at 17 times the speed of sound across northern Japan before landing in the Pacific Ocean, according to South Korean military officials, despite multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions banning Pyongyang from ballistic weapons tests.

Seoul described the launch of the first missile to fly over Japan in five years, as an “act of grave provocation” while Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida called it “an act of violence.” U.S. President Joe Biden said it was “unlawful,” “destabilizing to the region” and “a danger to the Japanese people.”

Stéphane Dujarric, a spokesman for the U.N. secretary-general, called for “dialogue.”

“The Secretary-General strongly condemns the launch of a ballistic missile of possible intermediate range by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) on 4 October,” said Dujarric. “This was a reckless act and a violation of Security Council resolutions.”

“It is also of serious concern that the DPRK has again disregarded any consideration for international flight or maritime safety,” he said.

The United States also called for a meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday.

South Korea’s ambassador to the United Nations, Hwang Joon-kook, told the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday that concrete action was needed from the 15-member council.

“How we address the DPRK issue at the U.N. Security Council will not only serve as a message to the DPRK, but will be a litmus test on the viability and relevance of the Security Council. As such, we urge all member states and the members of the Security Council in particular to join us in sending an unequivocally stern message to the DPRK to choose a different path,” Hwang said.

Chinese and Russian veto

But analysts said the U.N. Security Council was unlikely to take any action, and that the missile was likely meant as a warning to the United States – with the tacit consent of Beijing and Moscow – after recent U.S.-led military drills with Japan and South Korea in the area. North Korea has conducted 23 missile tests this year.

Mark Fitzpatrick, a former deputy assistant secretary for non-proliferation at the U.S. State Department, told RFA the test was an attempt by Pyongyang to remind the United States it had the capacity to attack Guam, a U.S. territory about 2,100 miles from Korea.

“As for punishing North Korea, there’s not a whole lot they can do because without Chinese and Russian support there won’t be any U.N. sanctions on North Korea,” Fitzpatrick said.

Fitzpatrick said the timing of the launch was likely due to drills held off the east coast of the Korean peninsula late last month by South Korea and the United States, which were the first such drills in the area to feature a U.S. aircraft carrier since 2017. U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris also visited the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea on Sept. 29. 

“North Korea’s objective is to have a deterrence capability. I’m looking at it through their eyes,” he said. “They want to be able to warn the United States that they would be attacked.”

Speaking in the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday, In Chol Kim, first secretary of Pyongyang’s U.N. mission, said that the North condemned recent “offensive behaviors by South Korea” and was “closely watching all the military actions that are conducted with the United States.”

“If South Korea continues to commit acts of today like taking issue with our exercise of the right to self defense,” the North Korean diplomat said, “it sure will inevitably pay a high price for it.”

In response to the launch, the United States reiterated its pledge to protect Japan and South Korea against any attack from Pyongyang, with the State Department and the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, which is based in Hawaii, both noting the “ironclad” commitment. Japanese and U.S. forces carried out impromptu military drills over the Sea of Japan on Tuesday morning.

More tests expected

U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price said U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken had spoken with his Japanese and South Korean counterparts, foreign ministers Hayashi Yoshimasa and Park Jin, to condemn the actions that he said had violated multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions and would have “destabilizing implications for the region.”

Gary Samore, former White House coordinator for arms control and weapons of mass destruction, said the test launch was not a surprise, and that he expects further launches and even a “nuclear test” after a key Chinese Communist Party congress later this month.

“We don’t know exactly how much of the testing is designed to serve a technical purpose to improve capacity, and how much of it is intended as political signaling,” Samore told RFA, adding it was hard to separate out the two. “But I think it’s consistent with what we know about North Korea’s current position: that they’re going to continue to conduct missile testing.”

Samore agreed that there was little chance of action by the U.N. Security Council, given the veto powers wielded by China and Russia, two of Pyongyang’s main benefactors.

“Action through the U.N. Security Council seems very unlikely, because China and Russia are not willing to go along with additional sanctions against North Korea,” he said.

North Korean state media, meanwhile, also released a statement from a top diplomat in Pyongyang on Tuesday announcing support for Moscow’s unilateral attempts to annex the Russian-occupied Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.

“We respect the will of the residents who aspired toward the integration into Russia and support the Russian government’s stand of making the above-said regions the composition of Russia,” Jo Chol Su, head of the North Korean Foreign Ministry’s Department of International Organizations said, according to the Korean Central News Agency.

“They were held in line with the U.N. Charter stipulating the principles of the equal rights and self-determination of the peoples and according to legitimate methods and procedures so that the will of the residents of the two republics and the two regions could be fully reflected,” it said. “An overwhelming majority of the voters supported the integration into Russia.”

Wallace Gregson, former assistant U.S. defense secretary for Asian and Pacific security affairs, said North Korean leader Kim Jong Un might be growing concerned “that Russia and China are getting all the attention, and he wants to make sure the world remembers him.”

But the primary result, he added, may only be to hasten Japanese efforts to remilitarize.  

“One thing that Japan and the United States ought to do is quickly enhance our theater missile defense capability,” he said. “Japan is already very concerned about their defense and they’ve got plans to increase their defense budget. And this is a demonstration of why it’s necessary.”

At least 145 people have died while being interrogated by authorities in Myanmar over the 19 months since the military seized control of the country in a coup, according to an investigation by RFA Burmese.

Rights groups and Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government (NUG) noted that many of the victims found to have died in custody between the Feb. 1, 2021 putsch and the end of September 2022 were members of the deposed National League for Democracy (NLD) party, and likened their deaths to “war crimes.”

The most recent detainees to die during interrogation were NLD MP for Kachin state’s Mohnyin township Myo Myo Kyaw, NLD Party Secretary for Naypyidaw’s Oke Ta Ra Thi Ri township Zaw Myo Win aka Ko Gyi, Yangon region’s Twantay township-based NLD supporter Khin Myo Nwe, Kan Ni village NLD Party Chairman in Bago region’s Waw township Nyunt Win, and Mandalay region’s Wundwin township-based high school teacher Kyaw Naing Win.

A resident of Mohnyin township with ties to Myo Myo Kyaw told RFA that the lawmaker was arrested by junta troops on Aug. 24 and confirmed dead on Sept. 22. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the resident said that since learning of Myo Myo Kyaw’s death, the MP’s family members are too frightened to hold a traditional Buddhist funeral service for him.

“His family didn’t know about his death because the authorities never informed them,” he said.

“His family members wish to donate offerings to Buddhist monks and hold funeral services for him, but they are too scared.”

Meanwhile, the resident told RFA, the Mohnyin Township General Administration Department – now controlled by the junta – sealed Myo Myo Kyaw’s home on the morning of the day his death was confirmed.

Residents of Bago region’s Waw township told RFA that Kan Ni village NLD Party Chairman Nyunt Win was arrested on Sept. 15 while farming and sent to the 77 Light Infantry Division’s interrogation center in Bago township’s Inn Ta Kaw village tract. They said junta authorities informed the party chairman’s family on Sept. 16 that Nyunt Win had died of COVID-19 and said his body had been cremated.

Zaw Myo Win, the NLD Party Secretary for Naypyidaw’s Oke Ta Ra Thi Ri township, was arrested by the military on Sept. 12, while in Mandalay’s Pyinoolwin township, sources close to his family told RFA. They said authorities told his family that he had died of COVID-19, but refused to return his body.

Residents of Zee Hpyu Kone village tract, in Yangon’s Twantay township, told RFA that NLD supporter Khin Myo Nwe was arrested by junta authorities on Aug. 29, adding that her family members were informed of her death two days later.

A resident who declined to be named, citing security concerns, said Khin Myo Nwe’s family members were allowed to view her body at a military hospital in Mingaladon township on Aug. 30.

“I heard her family members went there to see the body, but they were only allowed to see her face,” the resident said.

“They weren’t allowed to take any photos or videos of the condition of her body. The authorities only let them in after they turned over their phones and wouldn’t hand over her remains.”

The resident told RFA that Khin Myo Nwe had been in good health with no pre-existing conditions prior to her death. Authorities never provided a cause of death to her family, they said.

Similarities to ‘war crimes’

U.K.-based group Burma Human Rights Network told RFA that many of the victims of deaths in custody since the coup have been members or supporters of the NLD.

The group’s executive director, Kyaw Win, likened such deaths to “crimes committed by a fascist government.”

“Killing someone while in detention is a very heinous form of murder. These kinds of cases are similar to the crimes commited by the Nazis during World War II,” he said.

“We have an IIMM (Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar) and we will provide all the evidence to these organizations and build a case. There will be prosecutions at the international court. The perpetrators will be punished.”

NUG spokesperson Kyaw Zaw also claimed that the shadow government has “solid evidence” the junta has committed war crimes.

“All perpetrators at all levels will be made to take responsibility, whether they have issued orders or carried out the crimes … Justice will be served.”

RFA was unable to contact junta Deputy Information Minister Major General Zaw Min Tun for comment on the deaths in custody Tuesday.

In January, when questioned by RFA, he did not deny that such deaths had occurred under the military regime, but claimed that authorities conduct arrests and interrogations in accordance with international standards. Incidents of death in custody are investigated as manslaughter cases, he said at the time.

According to Thai NGO Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma), authorities have killed at least 2,332 civilians and arrested nearly 16,000 since last year’s coup – mostly during peaceful anti-junta protests. More than 12,500 remain in detention, the group says.

Translated by Ye Kaung Myint Maung for RFA Burmese. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

Russian losses and diplomatic isolation in its war in Ukraine are creating an awkward situation for old ally Vietnam, which backs Moscow but where public questioning of Vladimir Putin’s leadership could easily segue into unwelcome debates about the Communist Party’s decision making.

Uyghur residents in a city in northwestern China’s Xinjiang region are suffering malnutrition and death despite the lifting of a coronavirus lockdown because of authorities’ failure to provide Uyghur language support for emergency services, locals said.

Ghulja (in Chinese, Yining), a city of roughly a half-million mainly Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims, had been under lockdown since early August, prompted by outbreaks of COVID-19. RFA has previously reported deaths from starvation or lack of access to medicine in Ghulja.

Though authorities recently rescinded strict coronavirus lockdown in Ghulja, according to Chinese state media, Uyghurs in Xinjiang’s third-largest city say the lack of Uyghur-language emergency services has contributed to the number of deaths.  

A clerk at the Ghulja Emergency Relief Command Center told RFA that no Uyghur speakers were available to speak with locals who called.

If someone other than Chinese-speakers become ill, they usually turn to bilingual neighborhood committee officials for help with contacting the center on their behalf, she said.

“Neighborhood committee officials all know how to speak [Chinese],” the person said. 

If Uyghur-speaking farmers and others happen to contact the center directly, operators at the center tell them to contact neighborhood committee officials first, and they understand that, the clerk added. 

“When officials call, we can understand here on our side,” the clerk added. 

The communication difficulties that Uyghurs experience when seeking emergency assistance for critical medical situations can sometimes lead to delays lasting hours, locals said.

Such difficulties have also caused deaths in Suydong township of Khorgas county, local Uyghurs said, though the exact number is unknown.. 

When asked about local residents who died of starvation last week, a cadre at the Suydong  township community center said a wall builder named Semet died, leaving behind a wife and children.

Two village cadres in Suydung township said that Semet, a man named Ghiyasidin, and other residents of a village were sick and severely weakened due to a lack of food during the strict lockdown and were taken to the hospital only after the measure was lifted in the county.

But by then it was too late and they died on Sept. 24 and 25, respectively.

When RFA contacted another neighborhood committee in Suydung, a staffer said he knew of Ghiyasidin’s passing, and that the Uyghur was a retired postal worker in his early sixties.

“He was treated at a hospital but died in his home,” the staffer said.

‘Not necessary to ask these questions’

An expatriate from Ghulja county who now lives in Canada and has knowledge of the situation back home told RFA that Tohtahun Abdul from the Yette’on village in Baytokay township, Ghulja county, was seriously ill because of malnourishment during the lockdown. 

His wife, Repilem, asked village officials to take Tohtahun to the hospital or to call a doctor, but they rejected the request due to the lockdown measure, he said. As a result, the 50-year-old died at home on Sept. 17. 

A Baytokay township policeman confirmed the man died during the lockdown, but said illness was the reason. 

When RFA asked him if Tohtahum died of starvation, he said, “We did not ask these types of questions, and it’s not necessary to ask these questions.” 

Besides malnourishment, some Uyghurs in the area died because of reactions to unknown drugs and poisoning from disinfectants sprayed to kill coronavirus germs, according to people familiar with the situation in Ghulja who did not want to be named for safety reasons.

The chairwoman of women’s affairs in Kore township, Khorgas county, said many people in her jurisdiction died during the lockdown.

“Many people died in Number 4 village,” she said and refused to disclose their identities or the cause of their deaths. She suggested that RFA seek information from the relevant authorities.

Other parts of Xinjiang have been under strict lockdowns since early August under China’s “zero COVID” policy, forcing Uyghurs in affected areas to rely on local officials for scarce food handouts. Others have not been able to obtain necessary medications.

The severe lockdowns have made life worse for predominantly Muslim Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities in Xinjiang who have been subject to a crackdown by Chinese authorities since 2017 that has included mass detentions in internment camps and prisons and serious human rights violations.

A report issued in late August by the U.N.’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said the repression in the XUAR “may constitute international crimes, in particular crimes against humanity.”

Translated by the Uyghur Service. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

The Solomon Islands only agreed to sign an accord between the United States and more than a dozen Pacific island nations after indirect references to China were removed, Foreign Minister Jeremiah Manele said Tuesday.

The pact between Washington and 14 Pacific island nations was a key outcome of the U.S.-Pacific summit last week aimed at countering China’s influence in the region. 

The Solomon Islands earlier this year signed a security pact with Beijing, causing concern for Washington and its allies.

“In the initial draft, there were some references that we were not comfortable with,” said Manele, who is on an official visit to New Zealand. 

“There [were] some references that put us in a position that we’ll have to choose sides. And we don’t want to be placed in a position that we have to choose sides.” 

The Solomon Islands government has tilted toward China under Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare. The Solomon Islands switched its diplomatic recognition to China from Taiwan in 2019 and will host the Pacific Games next year with China’s financial help. 

Another Pacific nation, Kiribati, also recognized China in 2019, leaving Taiwan with just four regional allies.

The United States has not had an embassy in the Solomon Islands since the early 1990s, but has promised to reopen it as part of efforts to show a greater commitment to the Pacific. 

Manele said his government’s initial reservations about the U.S.-Pacific pact reflected its views on foreign policy in the region. 

The Pacific, he said, “should be a region of peace, cooperation, and collaboration.” 

During the negotiations, “we were able to find common ground that took us on board, so we signed,” he added.

President Joe Biden’s summit with Pacific leaders last week was meant to show a deeper U.S. commitment to a region that has turned to China to meet its development needs. 

Over two decades, China has become an important source of infrastructure, loans, and aid for Pacific island nations as it seeks to isolate Taiwan diplomatically and gain regional allies in international organizations such as the United Nations.

The 11-point U.S.-Pacific declaration condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

It said the signatory countries are committed to maintaining peace and security in the Pacific and that they recognize the importance of freedom of navigation and overflight under international law.

BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated news service.