Flood-ravaged North Korea is facing a national crisis from a food shortage and waterborne diseases, and the South Korean government should step in before the crisis leads to a catastrophe, Seoul's former point man on Pyongyang said Wednesday.
Jeong Se-hyun, previously unification minister and now leader of the non-governmental Korean Council for Reconciliation and Cooperation, said Pyongyang has not refused such assistance, but cannot bear to ask for help from Seoul or the international community because of the tension it caused from its recent missile tests.
"It used to call itself a 'mighty and prosperous superpower' and if it cannot overcome such a thing (the flood damage) there will be a problem. It seems that North Korea is saying 'We'll receive things that others give, but we can't tell them to give,'" he told reporters after a meeting with leaders of the Korean Council, a network of about 200 civic and public organizations organized to boost exchanges with the North.
The flood crisis in the North may serve as a chance for Seoul to resume its relations with Pyongyang and help bring the North back to the international negotiations on its nuclear weapons program, which have been stalled since November, he said.
North Korea was concerned about its recent hard-line dealings with the South Korean Red Cross when it refused a proposal to send aid equipment, he said. Pyongyang recently told the Red Cross it will suspend the reunion of families separated from the Korean War, after Seoul stopped its rice and fertilizer aid over the missile issue.
Reflecting a different attitude, North Korea hoped South Korea "will take necessary measures" when it sent a fax message Tuesday regarding the cancellation of a joint liberation festival, he said.
Also, it has accepted a proposal from Good Friends, a South Korean non-governmental organization that provides aid for refugees worldwide, to ship humanitarian assistance to North Korea, which will begin Thursday.
He said his council will launch a campaign to collect money and equipment to send to North Korea.
In its monthly bulletin, Good Friends said the death toll has reached some 10,000 and that at least 1.3 million have become homeless in North Korea, where heavy rains lashed bare mountains and poured into villages last month. In some southern regions including the inter-Korean border city of Kaesong and Haeju, malaria was spreading among displaced inhabitants who were drinking unsanitary water, it said.
International relief agencies reported much smaller death tolls.
The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, which has an office in Pyongyang, said heavy rains on July 16 left 154 people dead and 127 others missing while more than 60,000 people were displaced.
North Korea has yet to release information on its flood damage.
Seoul, Aug. 2 (Yonhap News)
Seoul needs to help N. Korea to prevent catastrophe: former minister |
