Aid to N. Korea Increased Under Roh

South Korea’s central and local governments and private organizations have provided North Korea with around 6.5899 trillion won for the past 12 years, from 1995 to 2006.

In particular, since the Roh Moo-hyun administration took office, the total funding from the government has increased to 3.097 trillion won: 46% of the total support for the North.

Grand National Party lawmaker Chin Young released a report on aid to North Korea based on the data from the Ministry of Unification at the Unification, Foreign Affairs & Trade Committee under the National Assembly.

The report included all types of aid to the North provided by the central and local governments and private groups for 12 years.

It also contained information about loans and interest taken out for the South’s light-water type power reactor project for North Korea. But it did not include $500 million, an illegal fund the previous government had sent to Pyongyang in 2000 prior to the inter-Korean summit.

The South Korean government has supplied a total of 4.2006 trillion won worth of aid to the North for 12 years in the form of goods (1.1333 trillion won), rice as a loan (722.3 billion won), a relief by the government’s Special Account on Crop (2.2882 trillion won) and aid by private groups (56.8 billion won). Also the government has sent 2.0 million tons of rice and 2.22 million tons of fertilizer.

Also spent for the North were 1.3655 trillion won as a loan and 404.5 billion won as according interest for the power reactor project.

In addition, private groups such as the Korean Sharing Movement and World Vision donated 598.9 billion won, and local governments including Gyeonggi and Gangwon contributed 20.4 billion won.

Among the preceding governments, the Kim Young-sam administration supplied 231.4 billion won to Pyongyang from 1995 to 1997.

During the next Kim Dae-jung government, aid to the North rose to around 1.4915 trillion won (1.2671 trillion won by the government and 224.4 billion by private organizations). Relief especially increased in 2000, when the historic inter-Korean summit was held in Pyongyang, and in 2002, when the last presidential elections were held.

The current government has funded 3.097 trillion won (2.7217 trillion by the government and 375.3 billion won by private groups), more than a double that of the previous government.

Meanwhile, international organizations have donated around $2.36133 billion for 12 years. The U.N., various countries and international NGOs provided $1.452 billion, $679.93 million and $229.47 million, respectively.

Especially noteworthy is that the South Korean government greatly increased relief from 2002 while the international community began to reduce it.

Rep. Chin said, “In the current administration, excluding the fund for the light water reactor, relief to North Korea sharply rose to as much as 64% of the total aid for the past 12 years. Despite that, the inter-Korean relationship did not make any progress. That means the Roh administration’s policies toward North Korea failed.”