NORTH KOREA

Hiding Health Crisis

9 April 2003

North Korea hiding health crisis: UNICEF doctor

By Shinya Ajima

The Japan Times ( 05.04.2003)/HRWF Int. (09.04.2003) - Website: www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - About 8 percent of North Korean children are suffering from acute malnutrition, according to Danielle Deboutte, a Belgian physician and health project officer with UNICEF's office in Pyongyang.

"The most important assistance for North Korea is food," Deboutte said in a recent interview.

In the midst of growing regional and global tensions related to North Korea, which have hampered some assistance to the communist state, the poverty-stricken country continues to have problems feeding its people, partly as it channels a good deal of its resources to the military.

"We have very little contact with the ranks of the government and no clear information about what they are trying to do," she said. "Even if it depends on what we do, there is usually no objection from the government in receiving food aid and technical assistance."

However, Deboutte, who helps doctors conduct vaccinations in rural areas by organizing and extending such programs, said she occasionally faces difficulties because she is constantly monitored by the authorities.

"The aid workers have to ask permission whenever and wherever they go on duty. No exceptions," she said.

She said that during visits to hospitals, where she found many malnourished children, UNICEF was "previously asked what we want to see there. Then, in most cases, hospitals seemingly have time to prepare for our visit (beforehand), just showing us clean shirts and blankets on beds.

"If we ask them to show things they don't want us to see, the answer is always the same, either 'that's not important' or 'you don't have the time.' "

Because of the communist state's control over information, relief workers must also meet its censorship codes when bringing in equipment or materials.

An associate of Deboutte who was teaching English to locals was refused permission by a government ministry to use some videotaped materials because they contained "sexual expression."

In terms of daily life, international aid workers in Pyongyang can watch news from the outside world via cable television in their offices and homes.

Deboutte, in her second year in Pyongyang, benefited from the use of e-mail, which is not available to ordinary North Koreans, and knew of the groundbreaking visit to Pyongyang by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. She was also aware that a number of Japanese nationals, who were abducted by North Korea years earlier, had been allowed to return to their homeland.

With a population of about 20 million, according to a survey in 1993, North Korea continues to suffer from a lack of food and essential drugs, despite international aid. UNICEF has been providing food aid since 1995, while the World Food Program has been donating food worth about $200 million a year.

Throughout the 1990s, Deboutte said, the nation's population fell because of a high mortality rate coupled with a low fertility rate. North Korea is now pushing a "larger family" policy, encouraging people to have more children.

With the exact infant mortality rate unlikely to be known due to the secretive Pyongyang regime, UNICEF is seeking to at least establish a baseline for the rate to help it better comprehend the true extent of the problem.

Deboutte does not deny that North Korea should be held accountable for policies that have forced its people to the verge of a health disaster.

"But UNICEF is doing well and never stops providing aid for the people in North Korea," she said.

UNICEF appeals for urgent donation

by Joe McDonald

Associated Press (11.03.2003)/HRWF Int. (09.04.2003) - Website: www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - Warning that its clinics in North Korea will run out of medicines next month, the UN children's agency issued an urgent appeal on 11 March for donations, asking countries to set aside any unease about helping the North during the crisis over its nuclear program and missile tests.

UNICEF has received less than US$500,000 of the US$12 million it needs this year to buy medicines, high-energy milk and other supplies for 2.5 million North Korean children, said Mehr Khan, its Asia-Pacific director. She said more than half of that came from Norway, while many other previous donors have given nothing. Without new donations, UNICEF clinics will run out of medicine next month and other supplies in coming months, Khan said. "Unless urgent assistance is provided, we could see malnutrition rates go up," Khan said at a news conference after returning from a weeklong visit to the North.

Khan said she didn't know why giving has fallen off. But asked whether it could be linked to tensions over the North's nuclear program and missile tests that have unsettled its neighbours, she said that was a possibility and appealed for donors to set aside any such unease in order to help the isolated country's children."It might be the political uncertainty ... and people are holding back donations," she said. "But with humanitarian assistance, we cannot wait. The children cannot wait."

(...)A joint survey by UN agencies and the North Korean government in October found healthier children. Among other things, it said, the proportion of underweight children under age 7 was 21 percent, down from 61 percent in 1998. Despite that, "the rations are not adequate," said Richard Bridle, the UNICEF representative in Pyongyang. "We say there's an improvement, (but it is) from a disastrous situation to a bad one."UNICEF in North Korea also tries to keep 460,000 pregnant women and 500,000 nursing mothers in good health. (...) Khan visited nurseries, schools and other facilities for children, and said that due to a severe energy shortage in the midst of an unusually cold winter, they lacked heat except in rooms where children slept. "Almost everywhere it was very, very cold," she said.