UN panel told NKorea regime to blame for deadly famine
Pyongyang leadership responsible for 1990's famine that killed up to 1 million, UN experts say
North Korea’s authoritarian leaders were to blame for the famine that killed hundreds of thousands in the 1990s, experts told UN investigators probing possible crimes against humanity in the secretive nation.
Speaking at a hearing in Washington, two American experts said former leader Kim Jong-il’s regime continued acquisitions of fighter jets and failed to increase food imports to make up for a shortfall in provision.
Andrew Natsios, a former administrator of the US Agency for International Development, said food was diverted from the northeast, which is home to many people deemed disloyal to the regime. He also said Pyongyang barred international aid in that region for two years but relented when the UN threatened to end food distribution across the country.
Natsios said he did not think the North’s leadership deliberately caused the famine, “however, once the famine started they knew about what was going on and they chose not to take action to protect their population because their first objective is [the regime’s] survival, not feeding their people.”
The UN commission of inquiry, chaired by Australian judge Michael Kirby, is empowered by the world body to seek full accountability, and responsibility for the famine is one line of inquiry. North Korea, which denies right abuses, is not co-operating and has refused access to the investigators.
“The North Korean government had the resources at its disposal, if it chose to do so, to maintain imports and avoid this calamity.”
Marcus Noland, an expert on North Korea’s economy, estimated that between 600,000 and 1 million people died in the famine, which he said began before the 1995 floods Pyongyang blamed for the catastrophe. He said after aid flowed in, the North reduced its commercial imports of food.