The significance of the decision to choose areas for joint farming between North and South beginning in 2006 and have the South provide equipment, feed, and technology is that it is a systematic and formal way to help North Korea with its food shortage. Over the years the South has sent rice, fertilizer, and agrochemicals to lessen the suffering of Korean brethren in the North, but that has always been temporary, emergency relief aid. People had said that to structurally resolve North Korea's yearly food shortages there needs to be a fundamental plan to increase its agricultural productivity.
The agreement largely reflects what the South wanted to do, as far as choosing areas to test the joint projects first and then expanding the program to the whole country after improvements are made. The South will supply farming materials and technology, and send experts and technicians as required to examine the progress. North and South now have the framework for permanent agriculture cooperation.
The North's continued food shortages lead to many problems such as physically underdeveloped children who have not had adequate nutrition. If the situation is neglected it will be an irreversible tragedy for the history of the Korean nation. The statistics on the physical attributes of children in North and South are so seriously different now that it makes it hard to see them as part of the same people. To prevent a tragedy the North and South need to work together to dramatically increase the North's agricultural productivity and achieve balanced Korean economic development. As the scope and depth of intra-Korean cooperation grows so does the common characteristics of the Korean people and so does mutual trust. Friendship and cooperation can contribute to resolving the factors such as the North Korean nuclear issue that threaten the stability of the Korean peninsula.
The Hankyoreh, 22 August 2005.
[Translations by Seoul Selection (PMS)]
[Editorial] Resolving NK Food Shortage |
