Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-01-16-Speech-4-109"
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"en.20030116.7.4-109"2
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".
Madam President, my colleague Chris Patten has spoken about Korea in this House more than once and he tends to refer to North Korea as a strange country.
Last week we approved a package of emergency food aid amounting to EUR 9.5 million. It was 39 000 tonnes of cereals especially for children, in response to the appeal made in November by the World Food Programme for North Korea. It was granted by ECHO solely on the condition that – and we are once again concerned about the problem of monitoring – the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea accepted the requests of the World Food Programme; this would mean better supervision and checks on the ground. With regard to this most recent request, the Commission, Italy, Norway and Switzerland are the only countries that have committed to progressing down this path.
Some of you have pointed out the contradictions that exist in North Korea. On the one hand, it is a country with an enormous army, it has a secret uranium enrichment programme, it is the first country to have withdrawn from the Non–Proliferation Treaty and is threatening its neighbours, and on the other hand, it is suffering from serious internal problems.
The end of the Cold War took away the country’s cheap sources of oil and raw materials, and it cannot produce enough to satisfy its needs. There is a shortage of medicines, there is not enough power, etc.
How can the European Union respond to such a contradictory situation? It is clear that we cannot continue to do things as they have been done so far. That is why, last November, the members of the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organisation decided to suspend the delivery of heavy fuels to North Korea. At the same time, I think that it is essential, as some of you have suggested, to pursue our efforts, to pursue the dialogue in order to make them see reason. We are currently discussing with the Member States of the Union the best way of achieving this objective, and we are also pleased to see that the United States are considering some of these problems with a view to holding a dialogue with North Korea.
It is true that, while we are concerned about what is happening in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, we cannot, and do not want to punish the weakest and most disadvantaged sectors of the population of Korea, especially for the errors of their Government. Some of you have talked about grotesque governments that do not respond to the reality of the country.
Therefore, following the discussions held in November in the Council, the Ministers agreed that we need to maintain our humanitarian assistance, including food aid. You have proposed that we should maintain the aid, but you also warn that we should be much more careful in monitoring it. The Council fully shares this view. Adequate supervision of the supply of humanitarian aid is therefore a high priority, and we are considering that issue in particular, both in bilateral contacts with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and in contacts with the World Food Programme, which distributes our aid in that country.
Some of the data we are currently using could be useful to Parliament. As you are aware, ECHO is the main foreign donor of humanitarian aid to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, excluding food aid, and since 1995 it has supplied more than EUR 62 million in humanitarian aid. The aid is granted impartially. It is supplied to the most needy through European Union NGOs, the Red Cross and United Nations Organisations.
In 2002, EUR 11.5 million were allocated to the restoration and protection of water supplies, wells, sanitation structures, distribution of water containers, chlorine tablets, hygiene materials, medication, etc.
In terms of food aid, we are currently a relatively minor donor. In 2002, as some of you have pointed out, we supplied 23 000 tonnes of wheat worth EUR 5 million to the World Food Programme for North Korea."@en1
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