North Korean Famine - Background

Background

In the late 1980s, when the Soviet Union was embarking on political and economic reform, it began demanding payment from North Korea for past and current aid – amounts North Korea could not repay. When Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, trade between the two countries ceased altogether and the North Korean economy collapsed. Without Soviet aid, the flow of inputs to the North Korea agricultural sector ended, and the government proved too inflexible to respond. As a result, food production decreased precipitously.

In the early 1990s, following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the economy of North Korea entered a period of steep internal decline that verged on complete collapse. The government initially responded to this crisis by intensifying policies practiced in the past that focused on increasing physical labor requirements due to limited access to new technology and necessary agricultural inputs, such as fertilizer and fuel. The country soon instigated austerity measures, dubbed the “eat two meals a day” campaign. These measures proved inadequate in stemming the economic decline. According to Professor Hazel Smith of Cranfield University,

... the methods of the past that had produced short-to medium-term gains might have continued producing further small economic benefits if the Soviet Union and the Eastern bloc had remained and continued to supply oil, technology, and expertise. —Hazel Smith, Hungry for Peace: International Security, Humanitarian Assistance, and Social Change in North Korea

Without the help from these countries, North Korea was unable to respond adequately to the coming famine. For a time, China filled the gap left by the Soviet Union’s collapse and propped up North Korea’s food supply with significant aid. By 1993, China was supplying North Korea with a staggering 77 percent of its fuel imports and 68 percent of its food imports. Thus, North Korea replaced dependence on the Soviet Union with dependence on China – with predictably dire consequences. In 1993, China faced its own grain shortfalls and need for hard currency, and it sharply cut aid to North Korea.