North Korea Expels European Aid Groups (shoots self in foot)

AP via Tampa Bay Online ^ | 16 Nov 2005 | JOE McDONALD

[Ben Mugged]

North Korea has ordered non-governmental European aid groups to leave the country after the European Union submitted a U.N. resolution criticizing Pyongyang's human rights record, aid workers said Wednesday.

The order covers at least 11 of the 12 foreign non-governmental organizations in the isolated North, which has struggled for a decade with severe food shortages. The groups affected are running health, sanitation, forestry and other programs.

The NGOs have been asked to wind up their operations by Dec. 31, said Padraig O'Ruairc, the Pyongyang coordinator for Concern, an Irish humanitarian group.

"They have several months to exit the country in the new year," he said.

Other groups ordered to leave include Britain's Save the Children, the French groups Handicap International and Premier Urgence and Sweden's PMU Interlife, according to aid workers.

The order comes as the World Food Program also is scrambling to preserve its access to North Korea following a government request for the U.N. agency to wind up its food aid program this year and switch to economic development assistance.

North Korea issued the order last week after the EU submitted a U.N. resolution expressing "serious concern" about reports of torture by the Stalinist dictatorship and its restrictions on religion, travel and other activities. It calls on the North, one of the world's most secretive societies, to cooperate with U.N. human rights investigators.

[Ben Mugged]

There is an old proverb that goes "when you find yourself in a hole, first of all stop digging".

[armydawg1]

Who thinks Kim will go hungry because they leave? Who thinks he cares if the people are still eating tree bark? Who thinks the Army will miss a meal?

Its the people of North Korea getting shot in the foot and everywhere else.

[glorgau]

North Koreans are the epitome of the phrase:

I'd rather starve than {insert condition}.

[detsaoT]

I dunno, it seems that the DPRK has as much "rustic" charm as Olde Europe. Well, in that they're practically in the 19th century, or something.

[ApplegateRanch]

Who thinks Kim will go hungry because they leave? Who thinks he cares if the people are still eating tree bark? Who thinks the Army will miss a meal?

I have beaten the drum for years: There is no such thing as "humanitarian aid".

ALL aid is aid to the regime, as it allows the reallocation of domestic resources away from the people, to the direct benefit of the military & politicians. "The people" end up with no net gain.

That applies, whether it is food, medicine, or any other NON-DIRECT assistance.

L'il Kimchee makes sure his chosen few do the distribution, and he gets both the benefit of the aid, and also the credit for the rice and fish heads that are actually given to the people.

Kimchee gets the steaks, the Navy gets the gravy, and the Army gets the beans, beans, beans...but the people get French food one day, and Chinese the next: "le eft oevres", followed by "sam ting".

Until DIRECT assistance is (soup kitchens or health clinics, etc.) are allowed, nobody should be sending any bulk aid.