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- Up to 3.5m people have died of starvation in North Korea
since 1995 and up to 300,000 have fled over the border to China, a Seoul-based
charity says.
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- And a United States congressman just back from North
Korea hints at the possibility that Pyongyang could shelve plans for the
launch of a new long-range missile in exchange for food.
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- The Buddhist charity Good Friends has based its estimates
on interviews with over 1,000 North Koreans living illegally in three provinces
in China.
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- It estimates that there are at least a 140,000 refugees
who have fled to China in search of food, and says that the figure could
reach 300,000.
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- They face being sent back to North Korea, where they
are likely to be punished for leaving.
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- The charity's president, the Venerable Pomnyun, said
at the launch of their report, based on analysis of the interviews with
refugees, that the death toll from the famine in the North had to be estimated
at 3.5m people since 1995.
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- "With a few exceptions among high officials and
a few others who have adjusted to the acute social changes, most ordinary
citizens are suffering from serious malnutrition and dying from various
diseases," the report says.
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- Reliable figures hard to come by
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- The charity's estimates are the highest yet.
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- Accurate statistics are very difficult to obtain from
the isolated country. Foreigners are denied access to most parts.
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- Estimates are therefore often based on official North
Korean figures. But experts disagree on whether North Korea's government
uses artificially inflated figures in order to attract foreign help, or
whether the regime tries to downplay the crisis by keeping the statistics
unrealistically low.
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- Pyongyang puts the death toll at 220,000. South Korea's
national statistics office last week estimated that about 270,000 people
have starved to death between 1995 and 1998.
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- According to figures published by the US Congress earlier
this year a total of 2m North Koreans have died of famine and related illnesses
since 1995.
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- Good Friends dismissed the South Korean government's
figures as "absolutely wrong.
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- "The government's incorrect estimation leads to
incorrect policy towards helping the citizens in North Korea," Mr
Pommyun said. "Providing food and medicine for the North Koreans is
necessary."
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- Female suffering
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- The report says, the famine puts a particular burden
on women who are often in sole charge of providing food for their families.
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- Female refugees are sold to Chinese men for as little
as $2.50 and sometimes beaten by their new spouses, according to the charity.
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- "The fact that women are being sold like dogs is
devastating," said a female food refugee in a video shown at the presentation
of the report.
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- "I came with the intention of earning money in China
and returning to North Korea for my father, but I couldn't go back to my
homeland, even though my husband constantly beat me, as I now have a child."
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- Famine could offer chance for diplomacy
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- North Korea's ability to stave off famine has been hampered
by five years of flooding. The cumulative effects of floods, combined with
inefficient food production, has lead to a stagnation in the country's
ability to deal with famine.
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- Pyongyang is largely dependent on foreign aid to feed
its population.
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- United States Congressman Tony Hall, a Democrat from
Ohio, sees the famine as a chance to prevent North Korea from launching
another long-range missile, a prospect that has raised concerns in the
region.
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- North Korea is believed to prepare a test of an advanced
version of a long-range missile it fired over Japan last year.
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- Mr Hall, who just finished a fact-finding mission to
the country, said North Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Kim Gye-gwan urged
the US to lift economic sanctions.
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- 'Best opportunity in years'
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- "If the United States lifts sanctions, we will certainly
respond with good faith," Mr Kim was quoted as saying by the congressman.
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- "This is the best opportunity we've had in years
to ease tensions in this region," Mr Hall said.
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- He also said the North Korean government was looking
forward to negotiations next month in Berlin where Mr Kim and Charles Kartman,
the US special envoy for Korean affairs, will meet from 7 - 11 September.
The missile crisis is certain to be at the top of the agenda there.
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