humanitarian responses and political interests

In this powerful and revealing book, former Vice President of World Vision Andrew Natsios takes the reader on a carefully researched journey into the makings of the devastating famine that occurred in North Korea in the 1990s. Natsios provides a detailed look into the dark psyche of the North Korean regime which led to the famine. The reader is left with a deeper understanding of the extent to which the North Korean regime will go to protect its totalitarian hold on its people. While the author in no way excuses the regime from responsibility for the famine, what is most disheartening about this account is that, had the global community responded more quickly, the deaths of so many could have been avoided.

Natsios asks the fundamental question that is relevant to this famine and famines that will come: Should humanitarian responses to famines be contingent upon the political interests of participating countries? His answer is a resounding no as he presents the catastrophic consequences of what happened with this famine as the international community waited too long to respond. The painful truth is that the slow international response, first to even establish that there was a famine and secondly, as governments contemplated using food aid for political gain, led to the unnecessary suffering and death of so many North Koreans.

rage against injustice

Throughout the book, the reader arrives at the sick realization that there was not just a food shortage in North Korea but an extraordinary famine occurring at this time as the author provides ample evidence to support the estimated astounding death toll (2-4 million). The power of this book comes from the sense that were it not for people like Natsios exposing these truths, this voiceless population crying out against such injustices would never have been fully heard as the North Korean regime did their best to cover up the extent of the crisis at the same time that they sought international aid. Natsios strikingly balances hard truths and facts about the economic and geopolitical makings of the famine against the human component of this devastation that wiped away the livelihoods and lives of so many innocent people. Although written in 2001, a few years after the peak of the famine, the book remains an essential read today for anyone interested in understanding the repression and injustices under which the North Korean people have lived and continue to endure today.

But one is not left hopeless at the end of the book. Natsios concludes by emphasizing the positive repercussions of this famine and the international food aid received, namely around the permanently shaken allegiance of the North Korean people to their government. At the end of the book, the reader is left with a sense of rage against the injustices done to these people and finds himself rallying around two of Natsios’ concluding statements: “Generosity and decency on occasion can have attractive geostrategic consequences,” and lastly, “The people will have their revenge one day.”

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