Humanitarian Aid in North Korea: Needs, Sanctions and Future Challenges

What is known about the current humanitarian situation in the DPRK?The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) is in the midst of a protracted, long-term situation of humanitarian need rooted in political and economic choices by the North Korean regime. Small-scale climatic emergencies (i.e. floods and typhoons) exacerbate ongoing gaps in food security, water/sanitation, healthcare, nutrition, and disaster risk reduction. It is estimated 10.9 million North Koreans need some form of humanitarian assistance. While there is not currently a situation of immediate crisis, the long-term and systemic nature of humanitarian need means the DPRK is vulnerable to likely future emergency, at an intergenerational level.

How are sanctions affecting the delivery of aid and humanitarian work?In understanding how the unilateral (especially United States [US]) and United Nations Security Council (UNSC) sanctions have affected the delivery of aid and impacted humanitarian work, interviews with practitioners and others with intimate knowledge of the humanitarian landscape in the DPRK, triangulated with public statements by humanitarians, have revealed four levels of impact. This includes:
i. the exemptions process: aspects of actually applying for sanctions or, in the case of US citizens, travel exemption
ii. dealings with third parties: business with entities like banks and suppliers
iii. interactions with sanctioning and/or implementing governments: relationships and exchanges involving humanitarian organisations and government entities outside the DPRK, and
iv. opportunities for humanitarian collaboration with North Korean counterparts: actual and perceived capacity to work with North Korean interlocutors.

Humanitarian Need and The Impact of Sanctions on Humanitarian Aid to North KoreaThe chronic and systemic nature of humanitarian need means the DPRK is vulnerable to future emergency. For instance, areas of long-term need, such as under-nutrition, have the potential to evolve into greater inter-generational human development issues.The situation is precarious and could at worst tip into large-scale emergency, and at best continue as protracted need with potentially severe manifestations in future generations. Humanitarian foresight analysis can help anticipate, prepare for and better respond to, likely eventualities of the future operating environment. While it is not meant to give a perfect snapshot of the future, it provides a picture of some of the likely evolutions of a situation or crisis. This picture considers the setting in which the crisis takes place (the conditions), as well as the interplay between aid interventions and the context (the system), to support decision-making in the mid to longer term.