BY BRIAN TAYLOR
On February 3, the Korean Central News Agency announced that repeated flood damage in north Korea has brought grain supplies in that nation two thirds below the level necessary for food, seed, and animal fodder. As a result, Pyongyang has made an appeal for international aid through the United Nations World Food Program.

Washington and Seoul have so far obstructed such aid, arguing that they would consider some assistance if Pyongyang joined "peace talks" that would include representatives from north and south Korea, the United States, and China. The U.S. government maintains 37,000 troops and heavy weaponry in south Korea along the "demilitarized" zone that has divided the Korean peninsula since the 1950-53 Korean War.

The February 3 statement by the Spokesman for the Flood Damage Measure Committee of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) said, "The DPRK has in recent years been repeatedly hit by unprecedented natural disasters, which greatly damaged agriculture and other sectors of the national economy and caused temporary food problem.

"The nation's annual demand for grain is about 7.84 million tons, of which 4.82 million tons is needed as food. Last year's flood damage made the grain output drop to 2.502 million tons in unhulled state, the amount being far less than expected."

The crisis is affecting most of the nation's 24 million people, as the government was forced a few months ago to cut food rations to one fourth of what they were earlier, according to a report in the February 4 Washington Post.

Douglas Cootts, director of the North American office of the UN's World Food Program, said the UN agency will respond to the DPRK request by issuing a formal appeal for only 100,000 metric tons of food aid, a small fraction of the 2.3 million tons the north Korean government says is needed.

"Experts say the small size of the appeal relative to the need reflected the difficulty of persuading key donors like the United States and South Korea to give anything at all," stated a recent report by Reuter news agency.

U.S. State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns declared this tiny amount of aid is intended to meet "the immediate needs of targeted groups and they have targeted young children." He also asserted north Korea would have to buy grains on the commercial market to make up for the remaining shortfall.

An article in the February 6 Washington Post quoted an unnamed diplomat in Seoul saying, "The consensus of South Korean officials is that the United States is too soft on North Korea.... North Korea has not changed at all, and if the United States gives food aid... it may not be helpful in improving inter-Korean relations."

The use of food as a weapon has become a normal feature of the policy of Washington toward the DPRK and of the U.S- backed regime in south Korea. In December of 1995, following the first set of floods in north Korea, Seoul discontinued sending rice until Pyongyang changes its "attitude" toward Seoul. The Wall Street Journal commented at the time that "rice must be tied to demands for policy changes in N. Korea."

The February 3 DPRK statement said, "The south Korean authorities have intentionally obstructed international assistance to the DPRK from the beginning. South Korea's 'national unification board' recently spread groundless rumors that the DPRK produced 3.69 million tons of grain last year, or 6.9 percent higher that the previous year." South Korean authorities also point to the 500,000 tons of annual food aid that north Korea receives from China until the year 2000, the DPRK said, in order to give the impression that food shortages are "likely to be eased to some extent. In this way, the south Korean authorities intend to spoil the atmosphere of international food supply."

Last spring, Washington and Tokyo announced they would provide no food aid to north Korea until the government in Pyongyang joined talks that would include Seoul. Even those among U.S. ruling circles today who are calling for more aid for north Korea have joined the imperialist chorus for bringing the DPRK government to its knees and overthrowing the workers state in the north of the Korean peninsula. "The downfall of the N. Korean regime is fervently to be wished for," said an editorial in the February 9 Washington Post, "but using famine to bring that about is more than risky."

Washington, though, seems bent to push precisely along this line. It has recently made it clear that earlier private assurances to DPRK officials concerning a barter agreement with the Minneapolis-based Cargill that would result in immediate food shipments is off and north Korea will now have to pay up front before any grains are shipped.

The February 6 Washington Post reported U.S. diplomats have been unable to persuade north Korean representatives to attend a joint U.S.-south Korean briefing on Washington's blueprint for a future "peace treaty" to end the formal state of war that still exists on the Korean peninsula.

DPRK ambassador to the United Nations Kim Hyong U told CNN February 5 that a U.S. decision to provide food aid must occur simultaneously with the briefing, not afterward. He also stated Washington had previously promised the two actions would be simultaneous, and then reneged.

"The United States never promised a specific amount of food aid to the North Koreans as an inducement to come to the table and have a briefing," responded Burns.

In January, the Clinton administration issued a license to Cargill, Inc., to do business in north Korea. The license allows Cargill to send large shipments of grain in return for some bartered payment. DPRK officials say in recent talks U.S. diplomats gave the impression grain shipments could be sent up front.

The February 4 Washington Post quoted an unnamed U.S. official saying, "We are perplexed by this; we were clear about the Cargill deal.... They want free grain. Cargill is in business; they don't work that way."

The history of the Korean peninsula in the second half of this century has been shaped by the U.S.-led military war carried out against the Korean people from 1950-53. U.S. forces leveled much of the country through massive bombing, especially in the north. They destroyed whole neighborhoods deemed "enemy" outposts, obliterated most of Korea's industrial infrastructure, and systematically bombed dikes to destroy crops and cause flooding. At the same time, they suppressed popular uprisings in the southern region that took the shape of general strikes and mass demonstrations. Nearly four years of slaughter left 2 million Koreans dead and 3 million wounded. Ever since the armistice agreements signed in 1953, Washington has maintained thousands of troops and heavy weaponry in the south. The food weapon is among the latest used to put pressure on north Korea.

In a statement of solidarity sent to the people of north Korea February 12, the Political Committee of the Socialist Workers Party said, "As Washington, Tokyo, and Seoul have once again stepped up their threats and provocations against your country, our party reaffirms our solidarity with the Korean people's struggle for reunification and national sovereignty. We condemn the campaign by the regime in south Korea and its masters in the United States and Japan to use the 'food weapon' to extract concessions from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and to stall on implementation of agreements Washington signed with the DPRK in recent years....

"We join with the hundreds of thousands of workers and students who waged heroic strikes and demonstrations at the beginning of the year against Seoul's new antilabor law, many of whom pressed for ending the forced division of Korea as part of their demands.... The new wave of labor resistance to the bosses' offensive in south Korea provoked several actions of solidarity in the United States - from picket lines to public forums. It is among the fighters who joined these actions... as well as striking steelworkers and auto workers in the United States, and other working people resisting imperialist domination and capitalist exploitation around the world, that the Korean people will find allies."  
 
 
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