North Korea's ‘fragile’ humanitarian situation

Timo Pakkala, the United Nations Resident Coordinator in North Korea, spoke to MSNBC.com by telephone from Pyongyang to explain the humanitarian situation on the ground there.

The U.N. has six different U.N. agencies in North Korea — the U.N. Development Program (UNDP), UNICEF, World Health Organization (WHO), U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA), Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and the World Food Program (WFP). Pakkala coordinates the U.N.’s activities in North Korea and the 35 international staff members there.

He has worked in North Korea for 15 months after working for many years on development programs in Lesotho, Ethiopia, Uganda, and Kenya.

What are living conditions on the ground in North Korea?
The humanitarian situation in North Korea is quite fragile, especially the food security and the health situation. The country continues to require international assistance if it is to avoid widespread human suffering in the coming months and next year.

Generally, most of the problems that people in North Korea are facing relate to food security and health issues. The country at the moment is facing potentially serious difficulties relating to food availability. The food shipments from China and South Korea have been reduced from last year. The World Food Program has a considerably smaller program than last year.

The country suffered from floods in July and they resulted in crop losses. It is estimated that there are continuous food deficiencies in North Korea which could be as high as 600,000 metric tons for the marketing year that ends this October. Unless this food deficiency is made up through imports, then it may be that next year is extremely difficult for the North Korean people. 

The country is not self-sufficient in food. Every year the country has a food deficiency of something like 900,000 metric tons which it has to make up with imports from neighboring countries like China, South Korea, as well as the U.N. World Food Program. But, the imports from China and South Korea have been considerably reduced and the World Food Programs operations here are much smaller than they used to be, so the country is facing increasing difficulties in terms of making up those annual deficits. 

How bad is the food crisis? Is there a risk of starvation?
I don’t expect people to start starving, but the malnutrition rates are already very high, especially among children and mothers. It is estimated that 37 percent of children under five in North Korea are already malnourished. So the country can really not afford any further food insecurity.

What are the health issues that you see on a regular basis?
The main problem is really malnutrition, which seems to be still quite widespread. 

When combined with the relatively poor health infrastructure, the lack of essential medicines and  the lack of clean water in the rural areas, it really means that the people are in a very difficult situation health-wise.

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How free are the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working in North Korea to actually do their jobs?
Our principle is that we do not provide assistance unless we have access to the beneficiaries. Now in North Korea, it’s not always easy. We do have quite a lot of discussions with the government regarding access. But it is a very important principle for us that we do have to have access the people that we assist.

I think things been relatively good recently. We do have good relations with our counterparts in the government. They do appreciate the assistance that the international community is giving. They try to make our work as easy as possible. Sometimes we do face some restrictions when traveling in certain parts of the country. But, after certain discussions, we usually can resolve these issues.

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