Ground zero

By John Burton

North Korea is ground zero for international humanitarian efforts. For the first time since foreign aid workers were allowed into the country following the great famine of the 1990s, which Pyongyang described as the "Arduous March," no U.N. or NGO staff members reportedly remain in the country, due to local COVID-19 restrictions.

This situation creates an uncertain future for international assistance at a time when North Korea leader Kim Jong-un recently warned party officials that they would need to "wage another more difficult Arduous March." His remarks suggest that the country faces serious economic problems as a result of Pyongyang closing the national borders in response to the threat posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The latest annual report by the U.N. Panel of Experts on North Korea, which was released last month, paints a dire picture of the conditions faced by NGOs trying to deliver aid from China or monitor their distribution within North Korea in 2020. One NGO told the U.N. Panel that "Humanitarian work has literally come to a standstill," while another warned that the continued border lockdown could "undo much of the progress" of aid projects.

Some of the blame rests with North Korea's overzealous response to the COVID-19 threat. For example, Pyongyang created a transportation bottleneck for delivering aid by requiring that some supplies be shipped by sea rather than over land routes, in spite of a shortage of available vessels. North Korean officials were also slow in granting permission for aid deliveries.

But other NGOs have said that the international sanctions against North Korea also contributed to the current crisis. A major source of complaints was that NGOs had difficulties in financing their operations, since most international banks refuse to handle money transactions for North Korean aid projects out of fear of violating U.S. law. One NGO told the U.N. Panel that the "U.N. Security Council says that U.N. sanctions are not applied for humanitarian operations, but they actually hinder humanitarian operations."

The U.N. Panel acknowledged that, "Sanctions likely had unintended effects affecting the civilian population." It noted that limited fuel imports have cut energy production. Restrictions on imports of agricultural machinery and fertilizer have led to reduced food availability, and healthcare has been affected by import restrictions on medical equipment.

The current crisis might create an opportunity to reassess the international sanctions regime when it comes to humanitarian aid to North Korea. The U.N. Panel, for example, suggested that more attention be paid to the views of the NGOs on ways to improve the delivery of aid, particularly concerning greater access to banking channels and streamlining the processes for applying for humanitarian exemptions from the U.N. Security Council.

There are also currently moves in the U.S. Congress to eliminate some of the roadblocks that Washington has imposed on aid to North Korea, at a time when the administration of President Joe Biden is conducting a North Korea policy review.

Senator Edward Markey and Representative Andy Levin, both Democrats who hold senior positions on Asia-related congressional committees, recently reintroduced their "Enhancing North Korea Humanitarian Assistance Act," to expedite the delivery of aid by American NGOs to North Korea.

"This legislation will allow dedicated aid workers, many of them Christian missionaries, to provide vital supplies to the North Korean people and make sure we're not standing in the way of life-saving work," Levin said. "If we've learned anything in the past year, it is that public health is global health. Ensuring the health of North Korean people is a moral imperative and in the best interests of the American people."

The lawmakers cited the example of dealing with drug-resistant tuberculosis, which requires not only just food and medicine, which are automatically exempt from sanctions, but also basic materials to construct temporary patient isolation wards, for which exemptions must be sought. "Even the laptops that humanitarian workers need for their projects can too easily trigger sanctions-related delays," they noted.

They want the U.S. to expand the list of humanitarian items that are automatically exempted beyond food and medicine, while removing travel restrictions for U.S. aid workers in North Korea.

Meanwhile, the U.N. Human Rights Council is pressing North Korea to ease its COVID-19 border restrictions to allow humanitarian workers and aid deliveries into the country.
Although North Korea appears committed to maintaining tight border controls for the time being, it also suggested that it would resume cooperation with U.N. agencies, including the World Health Organization (WHO), in the future.
Pyongyang's administrative newspaper, the Minju Joson, recently noted that the global COVID-19 pandemic, "Has had a serious negative impact on the development of our society and economy," but added that, "We will strengthen cooperation with the WHO and push ahead with projects to improve public health."
Let us hope that North Korea sticks to that pledge.

John Burton (johnburtonft@yahoo.com), a former Korea correspondent for the Financial Times, is a Washington, D.C.-based journalist and consultant.