Such individual arrangements increase PyongyangвЂ™s bargaining power and undermine efforts to gain agreement for random monitoring of aid, increased numbers of Korean speaking staff, access to markets, and greater international presence. It is time for Beijing to join multilateral donor initiatives grounded in international principles.ДЄll donor governments, together with the United Nations, should develop uniform standards for North Korea so that each is not left to negotiate its own terms-which is the case right now. And it should be pressed to use international standards to ensure that its aid reaches those at risk. It should be called upon to provide a significant part of the food aid now needed by ordinary North Koreans, particularly in the northeast, who are hungry.

China needs to be brought into the equation, being North KoreaвЂ™s principal ally and provider of food aid and fuel. This humanitarian imperative is not WashingtonвЂ™s alone to carry. Its failed economic policies, misguided currency reform, focus on nuclear weapons production, and failure to invest in health care and food, have combined with poor weather and rising food prices to impoverish the population and produce chronic starvation.Д«ut there is also a well-established international consensus that when a government fails or is unwilling to feed its own population and large numbers are at risk, the international community has a responsibility to save lives. This nightmare is North KoreaвЂ™s singular creation.

According to the United Nations, there are inadequate medical supplies and outdated water and sanitation infrastructure. More than 40 percent of North KoreaвЂ™s children are reported to be malnourished with a health care system unable to cope. The consequences of not providing food aid are clear: stunted physical and mental growth of children, anemia in pregnant women, vitamin and iron deficiencies, increased risk of tuberculosis and other life threatening diseases, greater numbers of homeless people, a rise in prostitution, and countless preventable deaths. But these may possibly be so restrictive as to preempt agreement.

Washington also has been developing stringent monitoring standards should it resume aid, given North KoreaвЂ™s known diversions to the army and elite. The mission visited only two provinces (the United Nations visited nine) and has been studying its findings for more than a month. It set aside the findings of thirteen reputable relief groups and did not dispatch its own mission until the end of May. Torn between its fear of propping up Kim Jong IlвЂ™s failed Stalinist state and its commitment to вЂњgood humanitarian donorship principles,вЂќ which forbid politicizing humanitarian aid decisions, the Obama Administration has taken refuge in delay.Д«ut taking no decision is really a decision, which gives the impression that there may be no urgent or extensive food crisis in North Korea requiring immediate action. Washington, which prefers to stay in lockstep with its South Korean ally, has been less transparent. South Korea, a long-time major donor of food to North Korea, openly refuses to extend aid now, citing the countryвЂ™s nuclear weapons program and its attacks on the South. The United Nations is seeking $218 million for 3.5 million people but has received less than 25 percent. In March, three United Nations agencies-the World Food Program, the Food and Agriculture Organization, and UNICEF-called for 430,000 metric tons of food by the summer to avert вЂњmalnutrition and other diseases.вЂќ Five European relief groups-including Save the Children, Concern Worldwide, and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation-reinforced these findings by declaring that the coping strategies of vulnerable children, pregnant women, and elderly people are вЂњon a knife edge.вЂќ And in June, the European Union reported вЂњwidespread consumption of grass,вЂќ and announced $14.5 million for food aid for 650,000 people in вЂњacuteвЂќ areas to arrive by August. In February, five American relief organizations-including Mercy Corps, World Vision, and SamaritanвЂ™s Purse-observed the вЂњacute malnutritionвЂќ of children in three areas as well as people eating seeds and grass, and recommended emergency food aid by June. Three needs assessment missions have so certified, and have recommended immediate food deliveries.

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