Subscribe
E-Paper
 |
The study, "Report of the International Study Group on North Korea Policy," said the current U.S. policy of "maximum pressure" is unlikely to succeed in disarming North Korea. It recommended instead a more flexible sanctions policy to promote increased international engagement in economic projects. This would reduce North Korea's paranoia about the outside world and provide economic incentives for Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons.
One place to start would be humanitarian assistance. In theory, both U.N. and U.S. sanctions do not impede humanitarian aid to North Korea. But in practice, various bureaucratic procedures have been put in place that hamper aid efforts.
Humanitarian aid organizations are complaining that they are facing difficulties and delays in transporting equipment to support their activities in North Korea. Risk-averse banks and foreign suppliers are reluctant to handle transactions out of fear that they might violate U.N. sanctions rules. They are also problems in acquiring waivers from the U.S. government to send supplies.
The "breakdowns in the supply chain for the delivery of humanitarian goods results in serious delays to operations," according to the U.N. In addition, the restrictions may be discouraging governments from donating money to fund U.N. humanitarian operations there. The World Food Program (WFP), for example, has been forced to reduce rations by two-thirds to its target population of children and pregnant women. Some NGOs, such as the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, have curtailed their operations due to the restrictions.
"International sanctions have exacerbated North Korea's ongoing humanitarian crisis," the report states. Although the food security situation is not as dire as it was during the famine of the mid-1990s, an estimated 40 percent of the population remains undernourished. Infectious diseases pose a serious risk, with a rapid rise in the number of cases of drug-resistant tuberculosis.
North Korea must bear some responsibility for these problems. It has failed to prioritize spending for development policies that would improve social welfare. It has also placed restrictions on the operations of international aid agencies.
Nonetheless, "obstructions to humanitarian work (resulting from U.N. and U.S. sanctions) are not only morally unacceptable but also practically counterproductive to the interests of the United States and its allies" in persuading North Korea to end its nuclear program, the report notes. Humanitarian work would also provide an opportunity to promote human rights.
It recommends that the U.S. and its allies should funnel aid and funding through U.N. agencies and international NGOs rather than on a bilateral basis. This would improve the monitoring of the delivery of aid supplies to those most in need. Adding more Korean speakers among aid workers and assessment teams would help this process. This has proved to be a sticking point with North Korea, which has preferred its own official translators to handle transactions.
These efforts should be supported by the creation of designated payment channels and U.N. "white lists" of legitimate transactions, items and participants. Governments can help assist humanitarian groups in educating overly cautious companies and banks to support aid efforts without fear of sanctions violations. There should also be closer cooperation among stakeholders involved in humanitarian relief to remove obstacles. "Humanitarian corridors" should be set up with established procedures and designated shipping routes to streamline the delivery of aid supplies.
One novel proposal is to create an international escrow account that would collect funds from the sale of seized North Korea assets resulting from the sanctions regime. This money could then be used to help finance U.N. humanitarian programs for North Korea.
The U.S. and its allies should also be willing to underwrite infrastructure improvements and other development assistance projects, such as those related to agriculture, that would directly support humanitarian goals. But donor countries "should also clearly communicate that the overall goal of assistance efforts is for North Korea to be self-sufficient in providing for the health and welfare of its population." They should demand, for example, that North Korea help finance these projects from the outset.
An early test of whether some of these recommendations can be implemented could come with South Korea's proposal to ship 50,000 tons of rice through the WPF to North Korea this summer. Seoul is seeking an exemption from U.S. sanctions to deliver the rice directly between the two Koreas by ship. Under U.S. sanctions, any ship making a trip to North Korea is banned from entering U.S. territory for six months.
John Burton (johnburtonft@yahoo.com), a former Korea correspondent for the Financial Times, is now a Washington, D.C.-based journalist and consultant.
