Low Fuel May Stall N. Korea Food Aid

An impending fuel shortage in North Korea could stall delivery of desperately needed food as that country continues its slide toward famine, an official with the World Food Program said Friday.

Meanwhile, the International Red Cross issued a fresh warning from Geneva that 5 million people are about to starve in North Korea, but the relief effort will confront a new political obstacle if providing gasoline becomes necessary to the cause.

“We’ve come to a very dangerous intersection,” said Michael Ross, a spokesman for the United Nations’ World Food Program in New York.

Defense hawks in Washington have been wary of sending food to the heavily armed North Korean government for fear that it would be diverted to the military.

In recent days rhetoric has highlighted that danger, as the North Korean defense ministry has issued threatening statements accusing South Korea of military provocation.

“I would guess that it is essentially impossible that South Korea and the United States would provide gasoline as part of food aid,” said Mike Mazarr, an expert on North Korea at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a private think tank in Washington. “It’s much more of a directly military issue.”

After months of work, U.S. Rep. Tony Hall, D-Ohio, and others orchestrating food relief efforts for North Korea say they can boast only modest progress. A “trickle” of food has been sent, Hall said, but about 1 million tons still is needed.

So far just over 325,000 tons of food has been sent to North Korea through the WFP, and another 155,000 has been pledged by Europe. Ross said his office will announce a new appeal for more food next week, and officials said the United States, which has provided 77,000 tons so far, will consider giving more when the next appeal is made.

“The situation is not significantly better,” Hall said Friday. “It’s beyond the point of being at risk. These people are about to die.”

Experts say North Korea’s economy, which at best produced substandard steel, clothing and some minerals, has all but collapsed under the food crisis. Poor harvests and lowered trade caused by North Korea’s political isolation in the post-Cold War era, have combined to cause the food shortages.

Ross said that to avoid starvation the country is devouring itself. With no industrial production, no goods to sell and few allies to trade with anyway, North Korea doesn’t have the capacity to make fuel or to earn the hard currency to buy it.

“And no fuel, no food distribution,” Ross said.

Nan Borton with the Agency for International Development, the humanitarian arm of the State Department, said Friday that in light of the fuel problem her office is looking for ways to move North Koreans to centers where food aid has been sent.