Posted on 08/06/2010 10:59:46 AM PDT by rrstar96
Resuming rice aid to North Korea remains a point of debate as the South’s rice surplus nears 1.4 million tons and the North falls deeper into destitution.
The opposition Democratic Party proposed organizing a special parliamentary committee to prevent a domestic rice market crash by sending rice to the North, a month after the Seoul government said old rice will be used to feed livestock.
“The rice surplus amounts to 1.4 million tons, more than double the standard inventory, and is expected to reach 2 million tons by October,” Jeon Hyun-hee, the DP’s floor spokesperson, said on Tuesday.
“North Korea, on the other hand, is struggling from a chronic shortage of rice as the price of the staple crop jumped over 50 percent in 10 days.”
North Korea is assumed to be producing less than two fifths of the rice produced in the South. The area under rice cultivation in the North accounts for only about 60 percent of that of the South, and the reclusive state’s rice farming productivity is much lower than the South’s.
According to an analysis by Seoul’s Foreign Ministry of the U.S. agriculture department’s world rice forecasts, North Korea grew rice across 590,000 hectares last year, just 62 percent of the South’s 940,000 hectares. North Korea is more mountainous compared to the South.
The North’s rice production per hectare was 4.89 tons, less than the South’s 6.99 tons.
North Korea’s rice productivity lags far behind because it lacks agricultural equipment and technology.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture said North Korea produced 1.86 million tons of rice last year, 38.4 percent of the 4.84 million tons produced in the South.
The North is not expected to produce much more this year.
The price of rice shot up to 1,500 won per kilogram in North Korea in just 10 days after hitting 1,000 won, according to Radio Free Asia.
Citing multiple sources, the radio station funded by the U.S. Congress reported Monday that rice was traded at over 1,500 won per kilogram in the northeastern coastal city of Chongjin.
Attributing the hike primarily to the North Korean won’s fall against the Chinese yuan from 200 to 300 won per yuan, the broadcaster also said local shortage of food worsened after heavy rains severed the railroads connecting South Hamgyeong and South Pyongan provinces.
A Seoul-based online media outlet called the Daily NK reported that food prices have soared after the North’s state television broadcasted major flooding damages in South Hamgyeong and Gangwon.
“Concerns of bad harvest triggered the rise of rice prices and to make matters worse, the value of foreign currencies has surged as well,” said the Daily NK which hires informants near the China-North Korea border.
A human rights group dubbed “People for Successful Unification” said the price of rice jumped from 1,100 won to 1,400 won per kilogram in the two days to July 29, citing a source.
“This is because the volume of traded food is far less than the demand and imports from outside have declined greatly,” the group said.
South Korean ministers of unification and agriculture have reaffirmed their position that reducing the leftover rice and aid to the North were two separate issues.
“Rice aid to the North will be possible only under certain domestic and international developments in the context of inter-Korean relations,” Agriculture Minister Chang Tae-pyong said last week.
“And even if we decide to offer rice to the North, we can’t send old rice produced five years ago.”
Chang said in early July that the government will allow rice produced in 2005 to be used as feed for livestock to reduce the surplus.
“The government’s policy is to dispose of old rice produced in 2005, which is deemed unfit for human consumption, as animal feed,” Chang said in an interview with a local news agency.
According to the ministry, the country’s feed producers estimate that about 360,000 metric tons of rice can be used to produce feed over a period of one year.
South Korea’s surplus rice has been rising rapidly since 2008 when the figure stood at 680,000 tons. In the following year the figure jumped to 1 million tons.
The growth in rice surplus has been blamed on dwindling demand and suspension of rice aid to the North under the Lee Myung-bak administration which took office in 2008.
Between 2000 and 2007, South Korea sent nearly 400,000 tons each year to the North, but the project was stopped in 2008.
South Korea ping
Just like the Muzzies - Backward Countries - Mohammedism, Communism does not work. This is what Barackism would bring to us.
Farms in socialist dictatorships have the worst weather.
It really is the damnedest thing.
ping
Send food to a country that just sank one of your ships?
Are they taking lessons from Obama?
My thoughts exactly. South Korea should tell them off and split the rice among the citizens of South Korea. Give the South Koreans a month or so worth of rice for free.
Send food stuffs to the nation which sinks your warship?
And how will the good folks of South Korea accept that?
Let the Norks eat cake.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.