Sanctions Hurt but Are Not the Main Impediment to Humanitarian Operations in North Korea

For more than two decades, humanitarian agencies have tried to address the chronic hunger and malnutrition of more than 40% of North Korea's 25 million people. Since the great famine of the 1990s, when humanitarian organizations were first invited into the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), they have come up against a series of obstacles put in their way by the government, undermining the effectiveness of aid. Although the sanctions imposed in 2006 and strengthened in 2016 and 2017 unquestionably have added to the difficulty of delivering humanitarian aid, the main impediment remains the government of North Korea itself.

This essay will examine how the DPRK, while allowing humanitarian aid agencies access to its territory, has often restricted their operations and effectively prevented them from reaching many of the most in need, as well as how international sanctions have added to those difficulties. As a result, without a change in North Korea's policies and practices, the lifting of sanctions would not alter the fundamental problems faced by humanitarian actors in the country.

The Challenge of Bringing Aid to North Korea

In 2014 the report of the UN Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the DPRK concluded that "20 years after humanitarian agencies began their work in the DPRK, humanitarian workers still face unacceptable constraints impeding their access to populations in dire need." The report found that the DPRK has "imposed movement and contact restrictions on humanitarian actors that unduly impede their access"; "deliberately failed to provide aid organizations with access to reliable data, which, if provided, would have greatly enhanced the effectiveness of the humanitarian response and saved many lives"; and continually obstructed effective monitoring of humanitarian assistance,¹ presumably to hide the diversion of some of the aid to the military, elite, or other favored groups as well as to markets.

In response, aid agencies have devised special measures to try to ensure that food reaches those for whom it is intended, including by weighing children's arms, omitting rice from donations because corn gruel and other mixed foods are not favored by the military and elite, and supplying medicines "that can only be used for their intended purpose."² At times they have developed successful random monitoring systems.³ Despite notable progress, in 2017 UN secretary-general António Guterres continued to highlight the "significant constraints" imposed by North Korea on aid agencies' access to the beneficiaries.⁴

In 2016, then UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon called on North Korea to grant UN agencies "unconditional access" to reliable and accurate data to ensure that aid programs "can effectively target and reach the most vulnerable."⁵ Yet when the World Food Programme's executive director visited North Korea in 2018, he noted that "access has still been very limited."⁶ The UN resident coordinator in Pyongyang aptly put it: "National authorities are reluctant to share data beyond the bare minimum and agencies are normally only allowed access to limited information that is strictly related to their operations."⁷

In this tightly controlled political climate, international humanitarian staff often have to make compromises. Some point out privately that it is unrealistic to try to uphold humanitarian standards in an environment as difficult as North Korea's. They try hard to come up with ways to make their aid sustainable for the North Korean people, but their plans are not always accepted. They may propose extensive medical treatment for some diseases only to have officials curtail the aid and increase the number of people being treated. Where the aid ends up is also not always clear. Supplies brought to one hospital may end up being sent elsewhere without explanation. According to the UN Commission of Inquiry report, humanitarian staff expressed "strong doubts that the people and children presented to them were those most in need."⁸ Gaining access is an ongoing issue. In 2016, during Typhoon Lionrock, for example, UN agencies were told they could visit only three of the flooded areas.⁹ And they were not offered entry—nor did they...