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<DIV><FONT size=4>For those who wish to read the debate in full, dozens of
articles</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>on this urgent topic from all viewpoints are helpfully
collected at</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><A href="http://www.ncnk.org/resources/news-items/DPRK-Humanitarian-Updates"><FONT size=3>http://www.ncnk.org/resources/news-items/DPRK-Humanitarian-Updates</FONT></A></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT size=4>In case anyone is unaware of it, </FONT><FONT size=4>NCNK's
website is an extremely </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>useful resource on DPRK-related matters of many
kinds.</FONT></DIV>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class=MsoNormal><B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Cambria; COLOR: black" lang=EN-GB><FONT size=3>Aidan
Foster-Carter<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></B></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=3><I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Cambria; COLOR: black" lang=EN-GB>Honorary Senior Research
Fellow in Sociology & Modern Korea, Leeds University, UK</SPAN></I><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Cambria; COLOR: black; mso-ansi-language: EN-US"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class=MsoNormal><I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Cambria; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 8pt" lang=EN-GB></SPAN></I> </P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN></SPAN> </P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN><FONT size=4>______________<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>In a message dated 5/1/2011 13:23:56 GMT Daylight Time, aoverl@yahoo.co.uk
writes:</DIV>
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<DIV>Dear Dr. Yoo,</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>thanks a lot for posting this article! I agree with the point that
food aid should not be a political tool, but unfortunately it has
invariably been used (and abused) for diplomatic and strategic purposes.
In my personal opinion, one particularly negative aspect of this
practice was that a far stronger linkage was created between the
availability of aid and North Korea's proliferation/non-proliferation
performance than between aid and North Korea's economic reform
process. If one assumes that a relatively successful reform process
might reduce Pyongyang's aid dependency and thus make the
leadership less interested in extorting aid through nuclear blackmail
and/or obtaining hard currency through arms exports
and criminal financial activities, a logical conclusion would be to
use aid to reward the DPRK if it implements reforms but
deny (or reduce) aid if it does not. Significantly, neither
China nor Vietnam had access to substantial aid from Western and
Japanese sources before they started to introduce radical reforms.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Unfortunately, the political and military context of the
aid largely broke the potential links between aid and
reform. A few months after the July 2002 reforms, U.S. aid ceased
because of the nuclear enrichment issue, and later Japan also reduced
its imports from the DPRK for the same reason. In 2007-2008, North Korea
made some nuclear concessions, but at the same time introduced
"counter-reforms," and cracked down on private entrepreneurs. It seems
that the North Korean leaders do not really want to simultaneously
implement reforms and make nuclear concessions. For understandable
reasons, South Korea and the U.S. attributes more importance to the
nuclear issue than to economic reforms, but if there are no effective
reforms, the periodical nuclear crises are more likely to recur than if
there are. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Best,</DIV>
<DIV>Balazs Szalontai<BR><BR>--- On <B>Sat, 30/4/11, Kwang On Yoo
<I><lovehankook@gmail.com></I></B> wrote:<BR></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE style="BORDER-LEFT: rgb(16,16,255) 2px solid; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px"><BR><BR>
<DIV id=yiv1530556852>Hello, <BR><BR>I like to share this New York
times Opinion with KS.<BR><BR><A title=http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/30/opinion/30sat2.html?_r=1&emc=tnt&tntemail0=y href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/30/opinion/30sat2.html?_r=1&emc=tnt&tntemail0=y" rel=nofollow target=_blank>http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/30/opinion/30sat2.html?_r=1&emc=tnt&tntemail0=y</A><BR><BR>Thank
You.<BR><BR><BR>Kwang-On
Yoo<BR></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV>
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