How Much Money Has United States Given To North Korea

North korea: Who is sending aid?

By Reality Check squad
BBC News

Image source, Getty Images

Xi Jinping is making his first visit to North korea this week as Chinese president.

Chinese country media says both sides will discuss the political tensions on the Korean Peninsula, but People's republic of china is too North Korea'southward most important economical partner.

North korea urgently needs food aid every bit a consequence of failed rains and a poor harvest.

And then who's sending assistance to North korea and how has this been affected by sanctions imposed against Pyongyang?

Severity of shortages

North Korean state media says the land is currently facing its worst drought in four decades.

The Un recently estimated that more than 10 meg people - around twoscore% of the population - are facing astringent food shortages.

Northward Koreans have been surviving on just 300g per person a day, co-ordinate to an cess by the United nations.

In the 1990s, a devastating famine is believed to have killed hundreds of thousands of people.

Image source, Getty Images

Who is sending help?

Mainland china is well-nigh certainly North korea's largest aid donor but the extent of that back up is hard to make up one's mind.

That's because Beijing likewise provides aid on a bilateral basis, rather than just co-ordinating through the United nations.

China sent 240,074 tonnes of nutrient aid in 2012 - more than than fourscore times the corporeality the European Commission gave Democratic people's republic of korea that year - according to the Un.

In 2016, Beijing announced it was providing $3m in humanitarian aid to alluvion-hit North korea afterwards international agencies failed to raise sufficient funds.

A report to United states Congress in 2014 said: "Mainland china, currently believed to exist North korea's largest source of nutrient assist, has no known monitoring systems in identify."

Other nations offer humanitarian support to Democratic people's republic of korea through UN agencies, NGOs and the International Scarlet Cross.

In response to the latest crisis, the United nations has requested $120m from donors.

This week South korea announced it was sending 50,000 tonnes of rice to North Korea through the Globe Food Programme (WFP).

This is in improver to $8m pledged in June by South korea.

Russia says information technology'south sent 4,000 tonnes of wheat in addition to $4m.

Other countries which have responded to the United nations entreatment include Switzerland, Sweden, Canada, Norway, France, Germany, Kingdom of denmark, Finland and Ireland.

Impact of sanctions

The existing international sanctions against North korea do non explicitly prohibit humanitarian assistance.

Withal, sanctions accept had touch on on food product, argues Professor Hazel Smith of the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London.

"The UN sanctions from 2016 explicitly prohibited the export to Democratic people's republic of korea of necessary agronomical inputs of oil-based and natural gas products that comprise the raw materials for fertilizers pesticides and inputs into irrigation," she says.

"Without oil based products, yields get downwards and much less nutrient is produced."

Assist organisations say the existence of sanctions too makes it very difficult to operate in North korea.

This calendar month, a Finnish clemency prematurely ended its food security and healthcare project, saying United states sanctions fabricated connected operations "impossible".

Reality Check: How is Democratic people's republic of korea evading United nations sanctions?

Failing assist flows

With tense diplomatic relations between Pyongyang and the rest of the world over the past decade, assistance flows take come under increasing strain.

Since 2012, the UN says the gap between funds required and received for Democratic people's republic of korea has been widening.

UN appeal for North Korea funds. (in $m). .

This is also reflected in data provided by the WFP for nutrient assist shipments, which have shown a steady decline since 2015 despite the regular requests for support from UN agencies.

Food aid shipments to North Korea. (in tonnes). .

The pass up in support for the North from Republic of korea has been particularly stark over the past decade.

For the decade later on 2007 there was piffling assistance of whatsoever kind provided either directly by the government or from Southward Korean NGOs.

This, withal, has changed with the humanitarian support pledged in response to the latest crunch.

South Korean government assistance to the North. (in $m). .

The United States used to be a major provider of aid to North Korea.

Co-ordinate to a Congressional Research Service written report from 2014, the United states of america deemed for more than half of the food aid from 1995 to 2008.

Prototype source, Getty Images

President Trump and N Korean leader Kim Jong-un have met twice for talks

Since then, aid has been sporadically given, but this has been hampered by Northward Korean nuclear tests and plans to launch rockets.

In 2017, after a gap of 6 years, the US gave $1m to Unicef to assist with massive floods in North korea.