- North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is tapping into his private grain reserves to feed victims of recent floods.
- Nearly 1,500 acres of rice fields were flooded and about 730 single-story homes and 179 apartment blocks were destroyed as of early August, North Korea says.
- Kim’s decision to use his reserves could be a worrying development.
- “It reflects the perfect storm of economic stress that North Korea is currently suffering from,” a former head of the CIA branch in South Korea told Insider.
- Visit the Business Insider website for more stories.
Severe flooding caused by intense monsoon rains has prompted North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to respond to an atypical situation that could signal a dire situation in the isolated country amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Nearly 1,500 hectares of rice fields have been flooded and about 730 households and 179 blocks of flats were destroyed in early August, North Korea announced.
Rainfall during monsoon seasons has typically devastated North Korea due to its lack of infrastructure. About 15% of the built-up area was destroyed by floods in the 1990s, according to one estimate, and a separate study estimated that more than 2 million people died. North Korea claims that about 225,000 died during this period.
Students wearing face masks disinfect their hands and undergo a temperature check when they arrive for a lecture on preventive measures against the COVID-19 new coronavirus at Pyongyang University of Medicine in Pyongyang on April 22, 2020.
Kim Won Jin / AFP via Getty Images
Earlier this month, Kim toured villages damaged by recent flooding. While Kim’s visits to the country are not uncommon as they could spread state media propaganda, his guidelines on the current situation caught the attention of North Korean observers.
According to the regime’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Kim ordered grain from his special food reserves to victims of the recent flood. The regime also claimed that no one from Kim province attempted to die in the flood, although similar flooding has killed dozens in South Korea and China.
“It is of the utmost importance to provide the victims immediately with bedding, daily necessities, medicines and other necessities to stabilize their lives as early as possible,” KNCA quoted Kim as noting.
“Upon receiving the grain, the residents expressed their heartfelt gratitude to the benevolent father of people who consider their misfortune his greatest pain and spare nothing to reduce it,” KCNA claimed in another broadcast.
However, the move drew control of Thae Yong-ho, a former senior North Korean diplomat who fled to South Korea and recently won a parliamentary seat. Thae, who was North Korea’s deputy ambassador to the United Kingdom, is the senior official to defect and has taken a closer look at the regime’s leadership.
“I think everyone is aware that Kim Jong Un’s grain reserve reserves a special supply of grain that can only be used in case of war,” Thae said during a panel hosted by the Heritage Foundation think tank.
Thae Yong Ho, former North Korean diplomat who fled to South Korea in 2016, speaks to the media in Seoul, South Korea, on February 19, 2019.
Lee Jin-man / AP
“I think … this means that the current food situation in North Korea is really, really difficult; and the second, because [these] coronavirus cases, North Korea is really in a difficult state, “added Thae.” I think Kim Jong Un wants to send some sort of SOS signal to China, which is the only one that can send emergency aid to North Korea. “
Thae said that if North Korea had to rely on China’s aid, it would have to temper its provocations to the US.
“In the second half of this year, if Kim Jong Un urgently needs China’s help, he can not [conduct] major military provocations against America, “Thae said.
North Korea has said it has coronavirus under control and provided some details about its number of cases, and only claimed it in late July. Pyongyang claimed that this case was a North Korean defector who escaped to South Korea and then swam back after being subjected to a sexual assault investigation, although South Korea said he and others around him never tested positive.
Considering North Korea’s trade relations and its close ties with China, one expert said that the regime’s optimistic assessment has in fact been rather bleak.
“It reflects the perfect storm of economic stress that North Korea is currently suffering from,” Bruce Klingner, a former chief of staff of the CIA branch in South Korea, told Insider. “It had already suffered from isolating the world.”
A nurse explains details about the COVID-19 and ways to prevent the new virus from popping up at Phyongchon District People’s Hospital in Pyongyang, April 1, 2020
AP Photo / Jon Chol Jin
North Korea’s tough measures in response to the coronavirus have hurt its economic lifeline, Klingner said, adding that the fight is likely to be exacerbated by the recent floods. From the memory of his diplomats in Russia – who are suspected of plaguing sanctions by cashing in on Pyongyang – to ending state-sponsored smuggling operations with China, the regime’s movements were “a one-two-three punch” against his economy.
Despite some damage to crops going into the autumn harvest, which the country has to maintain throughout the year, North Korea also announced that it would not accept foreign aid.
At a Politburo meeting on Thursday, Kim called “the spread of the global malignant virus” and called on the country to “allow no outside help for the flood” and to introduce stricter measures near the border.
“What they have to do and what they will do are two very different things,” Klingner said. “Every country has trouble with COVID-19.”
“There is that opposite need to both shut down against COVID-19, but also open up for help, like humanitarian and medical assistance,” Klingner added. “That the regime will, like other countries, wrestle with how to balance these two conflicting goals.”
