U.S. Assistance to North Korea: Fact Sheet

Publication Date: January 2007

Publisher: Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service

Author(s):

Research Area: Government

Type:

Coverage: Korea (North)

Abstract:

This report summarizes U.S. assistance to the Democratic People's Republic of North Korea (DPRK, also known as North Korea). It will be updated periodically to track changes in U.S. provision of aid to North Korea. A more extended description and analysis of aid to North Korea, including assistance provided by other countries, is provided in CRS Report RL31785, Foreign Assistance to North Korea.

Since 1995, the United States has provided North Korea with over $1.1 billion in assistance, about 60% of which has paid for food aid. About 40% was energy assistance channeled through the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO), the multilateral organization established in 1994 to provide energy aid in exchange for North Korea's pledge to halt its existing nuclear program. U.S. assistance to North Korea has fallen significantly over the past three years, and was zero in FY2006. The KEDO program was shut down in January 2006. Food aid has been scrutinized because the DPRK government restricts the ability of donor agencies to operate in the country. Compounding the problem is that South Korea and China, by far North Korea's two most important providers of food aid, have little to no monitoring systems in place. Since North Korea tested several missiles in July 2006, South Korea has suspended most official humanitarian assistance.

In the summer of 2005, the North Korean government announced it would no longer need humanitarian assistance from the United Nations, including from the World Food Program (WFP), the primary channel for U.S. food aid. Part of Pyongyang's motivation appears to have been a desire to negotiate a less intrusive monitoring presence. In response, the WFP negotiated a drastically scaled-down "development" assistance program with the North Korean government. Since then, the United States has not provided any food aid. As of late December 2006, donors had provided the WFP with less than 15% of its goal for 2006-2008. U.N. officials have warned that falling aid shipments and flooding in 2006 could lead to "severe food shortages" by the spring of 2007. U.S. officials, including President Bush, have indicated that United States food development assistance might be forthcoming if North Korea begins dismantling its nuclear programs in the six party nuclear talks.