North Korea should get no aid!

[ah000]

http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2938988

Here is an article about how NK admitted that food aid sent to it does not go to the ordinary people who need it most.

[Yu_Bumsuk]

The Sunshine Policy supporters have been at best fools and at worst traitors. If you're a US citizen and have some time (it is time-killing week, after all) why not take ten minutes to write your representatives saying why you don't want to see one cent of your tax money going to these murderers.

[Yu_Bumsuk]

This kind of hate reminds me of KoreanSentry..

I don't see anyone blaming American ESL teachers yet.

[ahmp0910]

Sending aid should be closely monitored in NK. SK was right now to send anymore aid after the Yeonpyeong bombing. The US and other nations should look down on NK and force the country's elitists to apologize and admit to their crimes.

[Captain Corea]

This kind of hate reminds me of KoreanSentry..

Interesting comment.

How so?

[Spongeblob]

North Korea is the good for nothing relative who became a beggar and is now holding a gun on the rest of your family.  I can see why you would want to give aid to keep everybody safe but how much longer can this beggar hold that gun without a really bad accident happening?

Anywho, that's how I see it. 

[MTBman]

Sorry, but that's old news.  More than a few people have known for some time that the NK military was getting the rice while those on the wrong side of NK society starved.  The Sunshine Policy may have won Kim Dae-Jung a Nobel Peace Prize, but more than a few conservatives believe the price wasn't right.  Kim DJ and Kim Jong-Il made a very odd couple when DJ visited Pyoungyang.  The warm and fuzzy sentiments have not lasted, as the news article stated. 

I beg to differ with you on one key point:  You are confusing the Kim dynasty, their cronies, the military and even the North Korean Pyoungyang living elites, who supposedly have a modern lifestyle, with the common North Koreans who live outside of Pyoungyang and are reportedly very impoverished.  The North Korean salt of the earth are deserving of our compassion and sympathy, while the dynastic Kim family and their cronies are not. 

What you probably do not know was that in the 1960's, the NK economy was better than South Koreas.  The shoe was on the other foot then.  It was very worrisome, and that may very well have been one of the motivators for the Miracle on the Han River, the ultra rapid development and modernization of South Korea, which was the precursor for the South Korea we know today. 

[Captain Corea]

The North Korean salt of the earth are deserving of our compassion and sympathy, while the dynastic Kim family and their cronies are not.

I wish there was a way to ensure that the food gets to them.

[Paul]

My personal opinion on the issue is that aid or no aid, it's got to be consistent.

As it stands, you have a changing power in the south (as presidents come and go, such is democracy) and a largely static one in the north. Imagine military incursions, nuclear taunts, and UN-directed promises to cease nuclear tests as "putting a coin in a slot machine". Every time it drops in, the lever is pulled and based on the present political climate, a random aid payout drops out the base of the machine. It's like an addiction. The problem is that lives are being gambled with.

Of course, inconsistency in policy can be an issue everywhere in the world: for example, look at the logistical arguments leveraged against a sudden military withdrawal from the Middle East when Obama came to power in the States. Problems are on some level inevitable. My gut feeling is that North Korean aid issues should be extra-political. Of course, I'm just an outsider looking in, so what do I know?

My heart truly goes out to the common workers over the fence.

MTB: Your factoid about the 1960s is indeed news to me, and rather surprising at that.

[Yu_Bumsuk]

This kind of hate reminds me of KoreanSentry..

Interesting comment.

How so?

Because a commie-sypathising idiot can't think of anything better to write?

[ah000]

There has been mention on how North Korea is communist which is true about their economy, but in other ways it is fascist.  North Korea's  leadership legitimacy comes from having hatred towards America and the Dear Leader's need to protect the people from an American invasion and foreigners in general.  North Koreans consider Koreans superior to all other races and their can be no race mixing, or befriending another race, in fact other races are out to get them (on a side note if you look at the English version of North Korean media it is very mild and not racist, but if you can read Korean and look at what their people actually see it very racist, there are even youtube videos of NK posters showing US soldiers killing babies). 

It is interesting to note that in recent years Japanese started treating Koreans better and integrating with them more ( A decline in racial hatred). This may be one of the reasons 총련 The pro- Kim Jong-Il Korean group in Japan has had their membership decline so much while 민단 the South Korean affiliated group has grown (see https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Chongryon )

So it seems that if governments and private organizations would just stop giving aid to North Korea which will only helps Kim Jong Il and instead use that money to help North Koreans escape to South Korea then much good would come.  1st Refugees could interact with the many Foreigners (http://www.korea4expats.com/article-advocacy-english-korea.html list many ways to interact with North Koreans for people living in and near Seoul )  this would help them change their attitudes about foreigners. 2nd since many Refugees find ways to talk to their families in North Korea then more and more people there would learn the truth and the truth will ultimately set them free.

[DWAEDGIMORIGUKBAP]

North Korea is the good for nothing relative who became a beggar and is now holding a gun on the rest of your family.  I can see why you would want to give aid to keep everybody safe but how much longer can this beggar hold that gun without a really bad accident happening?

Anywho, that's how I see it. 

The gun is so old it probably isn't going to fire and it likely has no bullets in in.

ah000 - I believe the words you're looking for are 'communist dictatorship' which is how it's usually refered to in the west.

[pak yu man]

So it seems that if governments and private organizations would just stop giving aid to North Korea which will only helps Kim Jong Il and instead use that money to help North Koreans escape to South Korea then much good would come.  1st Refugees could interact with the many Foreigners (http://www.korea4expats.com/article-advocacy-english-korea.html list many ways to interact with North Koreans for people living in and near Seoul )  this would help them change their attitudes about foreigners. 2nd since many Refugees find ways to talk to their families in North Korea then more and more people there would learn the truth and the truth will ultimately set them free.

A bunch of North Koreans coming to S.Korea would be like a bunch of Mexicans crossing the borders into the US.  Workers would hate it.  Taxpayers wouldnt go for it.  What make you think S.Korea would want a bunch of Norks?  Most companies have a policy (enforced by the government) that they must hire x number of N.Koreans.  A lot of companies just ignore it and pay a fine (the place I work at has no Norks and they pay a decent sized fine every year).  So lets have even more poor people.

[ah000]

pak yu man,

In the 1960's South Korea was a poor country and tens of thousands of South Koreans immigrated to the United States.  Many of them started out with low wage low level jobs, but with hard work they rose up in society and contributed to America along the way.  Now South Korea is the rich country, and the North Koreans are living in starvation under a dictator more brutal then Park Chung-hee (the dictator of South Korea during the 1960's some Koreans see him as good, some hate him).

There are many low wage jobs being done by Southeast Asians why can't North Koreans do those? Also the US and other countries may be able to take some of them in.  In addition there are lots of people who want to help them including many foreigners. 

We need to remember they have gone through a hellish experience like seeing family members starve to death, going to prison camps, and other things we can't even imagine. 

[Yu_Bumsuk]

A bunch of North Koreans coming to S.Korea would be like a bunch of Mexicans crossing the borders into the US.  Workers would hate it.  Taxpayers wouldnt go for it.  What make you think S.Korea would want a bunch of Norks?  Most companies have a policy (enforced by the government) that they must hire x number of N.Koreans.  A lot of companies just ignore it and pay a fine (the place I work at has no Norks and they pay a decent sized fine every year).  So lets have even more poor people.

The single farmers will like it, though the Vietnamese bridal agencies will likely be out of business.

[releasethedogs]

The military gets the food? All the better reason to not give them any aid. If the common people are going to starve all the better reason to let the army starve too. Angry unfed soldiers never kept anyone in power for long.

[leporello]

Sorry, but that's old news.  More than a few people have known for some time that the NK military asgetting the rice while those on the wrong side of NK society starved. The Sunshine Policy may have won Kim Dae-Jung a Nobel Peace Prize, but more than a few conservatives believe the price wasn't right.  Kim DJ and Kim Jong-Il made a very odd couple when DJ visited Pyoungyang.  The warm and fuzzy sentiments have not lasted, as the news article stated. 

I beg to differ with you on one key point:  You are confusing the Kim dynasty, their cronies, the military and even the North Korean Pyoungyang living elites, who supposedly have a modern lifestyle, with the common North Koreans who live outside of Pyoungyang and are reportedly very impoverished.  The North Korean salt of the earth are deserving of our compassion and sympathy, while the dynastic Kim family and their cronies are not. 

What you probably do not know was that in the 1960's, the NK economy was better than South Koreas.  The shoe was on the other foot then.  It was very worrisome, and that may very well have been one of the motivators for the Miracle on the Han River, the ultra rapid development and modernization of South Korea, which was the precursor for the South Korea we know today.

That's the dilemma that South Koreans' always have to deal with when dealing with NK...Most Koreans hate Kim Jong-Il and his associated cronies and apparatchiks with an undying passion, while at the same time feeling terrible about what's happening to the average North Korean...

So the question then is: If you are in the South Korean government, what do you do when famine strikes North Korea?Do you donate rice to NK in the hopes that some of it maybe will find it's way to the people who need it most as opposed to a KPA soldiers belly, or do you choose not to donate in the full expectation that potentially many thousands of ordinary North Koreans may starve based your decision... And then there is the additional complication that when South Korea donates food to North Korea during times of famine or disaster, it is inadvertently propping up the North Korean government, which is the same government that threatens South Korea on a daily basis, as well as executing what essentially amounts to acts of terrorism on the South  Korean populace (IE. The shelling of Yongpyeong-do, blowing up the Cheonan, kidnapping SK citizens and taking them back to NK)...

Personally, I think that North Korea shouldn't be given any aid...If you could be sure that the aid would get to the right people, that would be one thing...But we cant, and the reason we can't is because North Korea simply refuses to accept international monitoring of food aid distribution, because North Korea is far more concerned that the food gets to the right people than those who are really in need... Plus, there's considerable skepticism that there even is a famine in North Korea at present.... I found these articles that consider the "Famine claim" to be dubious at best...

 http://in.reuters.com/article/2011/05/24/idINIndia-57227120110524
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/opinon/2011/05/137_86879.html

Ultimately, I don't think South Korea, or indeed any country, should be providing food aid to North Korea unless a) North Korea can actually prove that it's experiencing major food shortages, and b)that it's willing to allowing international monitoring of where the food goes, and to whom it goes to... That may sound hard-nosed, but ultimately I don't think that there is any way of dealing with the North Korean government other than hard-nosed diplomacy...Because the North Koreans have shown again and again that they are willing to take the international community, including South Korea, for a ride any time they feel like it...