B4-0332, 0346, 0356 and 0363/98

Resolution on the food crisis in North Korea

12/03/98

The European Parliament,

- having regard to its resolutions of 15 May 1997(25) and 23 October 1997(26) on the famine in North Korea,

A. whereas the shortfall of millions of tonnes of rice and maize as a result of the failed harvest of 1997 is now beginning to take full effect,

B. aware of the chronic shortage of energy in the country and the EU membership of the Korean Energy Development Organisation designed to provide 2 nuclear power stations for North Korea by 2005,

C. aware of the announcement on 2 March 1998 by the North Korean Flood Damage Rehabilitation Committee that even if the current daily ration of grain were halved from 200 grammes to a starvation-level 100 grammes the present stock of grain would still run out by the middle of March,

D. equally aware of other sources which dispute the full gravity of the situation,

E. noting, however, that official UN figures indicate that there are tens of thousands of children already suffering from severe malnutrition,

F. aware of the continuing humanitarian work of NGOs, the Red Cross Children Aid Direct and MSF and the United Nations agencies,

G. noting that the causes of the famine are also to be attributed to the country"s failed economic and agricultural policies of the past decades,

H. whereas the North Korean authorities keep their people extremely isolated and whereas restrictions on visits to North Korea and on access to impartial information prevent the assessment of the exact scale of the spread of famine, as well as proper monitoring of the food aid given,

I. aware that the European Union has been the largest aid donor,

1. Criticizes the North Korean government for preventing a full assessment of the food crisis and for hampering the monitoring of aid distribution, and calls on it to make possible an objective assessment of the current situation as concerns food and energy supplies;

2. Calls on the European Union and its Member States to make preparations for further humanitarian aid, but to make it conditional on the donors' ability to monitor its distribution;

3. Insists that North Korea allow a delegation to investigate both the humanitarian aid needs and the problems of energy supply which exacerbate the former;

4. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission, the Council, the governments of the Member States, the Government of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the Government of the Republic of Korea and the governments of the United States and Japan.