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South Korean military authorities have known since 2003, when the Roh Moo-hyun administration was inaugurated, that North Korea has transported rice supplied by the South for humanitarian purposes to frontline units of the North Korean Army. The South Korean military has admitted it found no fewer than 200 South Korean rice sacks transported to North Korean Army units on about 10 occasions to the demilitarized zone including Gangwon Province between 2003 and recently.
This is the first corroboration by the South Korean military of testimony by North Korean refugees that the food aid provided by South Korea is being diverted for military purposes. But despite their knowledge of this fact, neither the South Korean government nor military authorities protested to North Korea or asked it for an explanation, apparently for fear of provoking Pyongyang.
A senior government source in Seoul on Wednesday said South Korean sentries ¡°repeatedly detected North Korean soldiers unloading rice sacks bearing the logo of the Korean National Red Cross and the letters ¡°Daehan Minguk¡± (Republic of Korea) from trucks or stacking them up in their units in the eastern and central frontline areas including Gangwon Province. South Korean military authorities have reportedly taken several photographs of such scenes.
That the sacks contained rice appears even more probable since they were stocked up alongside North Korean-made sacks of rice. A source familiar with the frontline area said, "In December last year, our sentries in a frontline unit detected rice sacks printed with the letters 'Daehan Minguk' being stacked up alongside North Korean-made sacks of rice in a North Korean Army unit in the Inje area of Gangwon Province."
The source said that puts North Korea on the spot, since it is now confirmed that its army used the rice sacks at least in setting up encampments in the frontline areas. By intercepting North Korean Army communications, the South Korean military has further confirmed the North Korean Army's use of rice the South supplied.
The Roh administration has made no issue of this matter in inter-Korean ministerial talks or inter-Korean military talks. Yet the Committee for Democratization of North Korea, a coalition of North Korean refugees, conducted a survey of 250 North Korean refugees who have settled in the South in December last year, and only 7.6 percent of the respondents said they had received rice supplied by the South. Some 60 percent said they believed the rice provided by South Korea is distributed to the North Korean Army on a priority basis.
Experts urge the government to lodge a strong protest with the North and increase monitoring in fairly distribution of rice to North Korean residents who need it most rather than the military.
Baek Seung-joo, a researcher at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, said, "We need a system that links the transparency in food distribution with the amount of food aid we provide for the North."
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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