The politics of famine relief in North Korea

Abstract

This thesis details and assesses the diplomatic and political climates in the U.S. and, to a lesser extent, Japan and South Korea, as they relate to East Asia and the DPRK in the late 1980s and early-and-mid 1990s. These times included an increased albeit limited opening in the relations between the DPRK and the US, the ROK and Japan that took place in spite of acts of violence. North Korea's nuclear program and strained relationship with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) would alter this changing dynamic. This period also included the staggering decline of the North Korean economy. Amidst these and other challenges, the US, Japan and the ROK responded to the strategic challenges and humanitarian disaster of the 1990's in North Korea. There were differences in opinion among nations and amongst policymakers and experts on the appropriateness of North Korea as a recipient of aid, the role of the United States in humanitarian efforts, regional relations in East Asia, the threshold for government involvement in food crises, and the relationship between food aid and the nuclear situation. There were also differences in opinion about the nature of aid. This thesis is not an attempt to explain every detail of the origins and conditions of the North Korean famine. It is not an almanac of the overall response. Such works would require the release of information from not only North Korea, but from the classified files of donor nations.