The North Korean Crisis

All sides have issued their fair share of bold statements and political gestures in the recent crisis surrounding North Korea’s nuclear threats. All relevant actors, from the U.S. government to the Chinese Politburo, from Ban Ki Moon to John F. Kerry, have made a statement, taken a stance or acted upon this burgeoning political meltdown. Undeniably, there is a lot at stake in this escalating conflict. It remains to be seen whether or not North Korea will launch an attack on South Korea, or maybe even on the United States. It is thus no surprise that the political situation on the Korean peninsula has been a constant and troubling source of the world’s attention in recent months.

Nonetheless, we cannot allow North Korea’s militarism and inflammatory rhetoric to distract us from the humanitarian concerns that plague the “Hermit kingdom.” Although North Korea’s lamentable political situation is intrinsically linked to the country’s dire food crisis and underdevelopment, we hope that the world can turn its attention away from the attention-seeking antics of North Korea’s regime and its new dictator and can turn its attention to pressing humanitarian concerns, especially mass starvation, the increase in tuberculosis contraction, and the recent expansion of concentration camps.

It would be naïve to assume that the world, especially the United States, could attempt to alleviate humanitarian problems in North Korea while ignoring North Korea’s labyrinthian political regime and its antagonistic approach to foreign policy and nuclear armaments. Following the recent ascension of Kim Jong Un to power, there has been much speculation that the young leader has been forced to prove himself to the older generals who wield most of the power in the communist one-party state. We can surely expect the recent nuclear threats made by Kim Jong Un to be the first of many expressions of internal dissent between the ranks of the leaders of the Workers’ Party of Korea, given speculated turmoil in the North Korean government.

Nonetheless, North Korea has been a focal point in East Asian geopolitical drama for the last few decades, and the rest of the world has previously navigated through political complications to provide humanitarian aid to North Korean civilians. It is imperative that we overcome current complications to continue to do so. Last year the UN reported that nearly a third of all children in North Korea are showing signs of dwarfism due to malnutrition and that only 40 percent of the $198 million they require for their humanitarian activities had been donated. Tuberculosis contraction in North Korea has also surged in association with starvation in the past two decades, but treatment for the disease is hard to come by. Satellite images have also recently revealed that Camp 14, one of the most infamous of North Korea’s many concentration camps, has expanded.

Five international aid non-profits have recently claimed that it has been almost impossible to deliver food aid to the civilian population for the past two years due to the U.S.’s neglect of the starvation of North Korean civilians. For example, North Korea broke an agreement with the United States in March 2012 by launching a satellite using a long range missile, prompting the U.S. State Department to cancel a planned donation of 240,000 tons of food aid.

Nations should not punish the civilian population of North Korea for the political infractions of North Korea’s government. This may be a tall order, but we must proportion the attention we give humanitarian issues in North Korea relative to that we give to the political ones.