I travelled to North Korea in 2012 and spent 10 days within the hermit kingdom. I travelled to the country with a delegation from First Steps Canada, a small organization run out of a basement in Kitsilano, Vancouver, which donates soybeans to orphanages in North Korea. First Steps Canada sends Canadian soybeans to North Korea to be processed into nutrient-rich soymilk, which orphans are given a few servings of each day. The amazing work done by people at First Steps provides over a hundred thousand North Korean orphans with life-sustaining soymilk each and every day.
Of course, it is one thing to raise money, purchase soybeans and ship them to North Korea. It is an entirely different thing to ensure that these beans arrive at the orphanages where they are most needed, without being skimmed off by the port authority, the military, or other organs of the North Korean state apparatus. After all, in a country where millions of people are starving and food aid is scarce (more on this later), it is sad yet unsurprising that resources may be diverted away from helpless children. Because of this, representatives from First Steps must travel to North Korea five or six times a year, to take inventory of the landed shipments, to speak to the orphanage caretakers, and to ensure that the soybeans are being given to those who they are intended to be given to – the children. Towards the end of our time in North Korea, I found myself in Nampo, a harbour city on the west coast of the peninsula. Travelling with First Steps, we had NGO status and were thus able to leave the illusionary grandeur of Pyongyang to see what few foreigners get to see – the real North Korea. Nampo was a town like many others outside Pyongyang. Buildings were decrepit and dimly lit due to the apparent lack of electricity, and we saw few people on the street. Our guides (assigned to us by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, perhaps ‘handlers’ is a better term) took us to a ‘store,’ which had next to nothing on the shelves. Our first meeting with a municipal official. He discussed the process of receiving the soybeans at the port, transporting them to foodstuffs depots, and finally distributing them to local schools and charities. What was memorable about this meeting was that one member of our delegation, from the World Food Organization, suggested that the city of Nampo accept imports of genetically modified food (GMO) to help feed the population. He explained that while naturally occurring soybeans contained only 3 beans per pod, GMO soybeans contained a minimum of 5, often 6 per pod. Without significantly increasing the post of import or transport, they could double their soybean supply. To this, the official responded with a resounding ‘No!’ Although I couldn’t understand his Korean, I was later told that the official had ranted about how GMO crops were a ploy of the west, and that North Korea and the city of Nampo would never accept donations of them. North Korea is a country which receives relatively little food aid already, yet they were refusing increased shipment of soybeans. This man was willing to weigh his ideology above the nourishment of his own people. Unfortunately, this was not dissimilar to the attitudes of many of the people I met during my time in North Korea. Almost blind adherence to ideology often meant that people suffered greatly. Our next appointment that day was at a foodstuffs distribution centre. In the meeting, they talked the usual game of praising the successful policies of regime and the resultant abundance of food, while simultaneously insisting that the soybean shipments from Canada must be increased. As was common in many meetings we attended, a table full of food was laid out for us, as a way to try to impress us. It was ironic that in a meeting about food insecurity and aid, they laid out a bounty of food for us to see. It was certainly a feast by North Korean standards, and I was saddened that regular people - ones who truly needed it - would not be receiving the food In the adjoining warehouse, it was time to take an inventory of the soybean shipments. I hopped up onto the stacks of 50lb soybean bags and started counting. In that moment, I was truly what you could call a ‘bean counter’. Of course, the bags were stacked 10 feet high and there were hundreds of them, so I had to estimate. I walked around and meticulously counted, checking and rechecking the numbers. But even according to my highest estimates, there were no more than 2/3rds of the beans that they were claiming there were, present. That meant there were literally tons of donated soybeans that were unaccounted for. We confronted the North Korean officials about the missing beans. A royal shouting match ensued, with the North Koreans accusing us of lying and dishonesty and just about everything in the book. The maybe-mayor of Nampo who had gotten upset over GMO’s had rejoined us, and he too got involved. The officials told us to leave Nampo. They threatened us by saying that First Steps was no longer permitted to operate in their city. Our appointments for the rest of the day were cancelled. Later, we were informed by the North Koreans that the shipments had in fact been diverted to a different centre, in Pyongyang. “Great! Since we’ve been kicked out of Nampo, we’re going to head back to Pyongyang now and we can check on the shipment”. To that, the officials responded by scrambling about frantically, realizing that we had called their bluff. The ride back to Pyongyang was sullen that evening. If the officials truly had banned First Steps from operating in Nampo, then thousands of orphans would stop receiving their daily soymilk meals. Because the pride and integrity of those officials had been challenged, they were willing to stop shipments of foreign aid to their most vulnerable citizens. We arrived in the outskirts of Pyongyang at dusk, at the orphanage where it was claimed that the beans had been sent. It was immediately apparent that the beans had not been sent to this orphanage long earlier, as had been suggested. We knew this because when we arrived, about 20 workers were hastily unloading a shipment of First Steps soybeans from a truck. They had evidently sent a shipment to this orphanage last minute, likely to cover their bluff in Nampo. Whether or not they were the same beans that were diverted away from the warehouse in Nampo, we do not know. We were resigned, we had been lied to, and were being deceived. But at least this orphanage in Pyongyang would now receive a shipment of soybeans, so it was a victory in that sense. We did not want to confront the Nampo Officials once more, for fear of being kicked out of the city and for the sake of the orphans who live there. Sending humanitarian aid shipments to the DPRK is a tricky matter. It is important to ensure that the aid is being received by those who need it the most. However, as demonstrated above, by confronting these officials in Nampo about the skimming-off of the soybean shipments, First Steps almost had its operations in Nampo ended. To send aid to orphanages requires an extent of cooperation with the regime to ensure that they will allow First Steps to continue to operate in the country. However, sending aid into North Korea without any checks or balances will all but ensure that the aid ends up in the hands of the regime, and not in the hands of the children. It is upon this fine balance that humanitarian agencies operating in North Korea must operate. [In the end, the officials at the city of Nampo realized how dependent they were on First Steps’ shipments and agreed to allow them to continue to send shipments of soybeans to orphanages in the country.]
39 Comments
|