RS21834
U.S. Assistance to North Korea: Fact Sheet
October 11, 2006

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Summary

This report summarizes U.S. aid to the Democratic People's Republic of North Korea (DPRK, also known as North Korea). It will be updated periodically to track changes in U.S. provision of aid to North Korea. A more extended description and analysis of aid to North Korea, including assistance provided by other countries, is provided in CRS Report RL31785, Foreign Assistance to North Korea. Since 1995, the United States has provided over $1.1 billion, about 60% of which has paid for food aid. About 40% was energy assistance channeled through the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO), the multilateral organization established in 1994 to provide energy aid in exchange for North Korea's pledge to halt its existing nuclear program. U.S. assistance to North Korea has fallen significantly over the past three years, and was zero in FY2006. The KEDO program was shut down in January 2006. Food aid has been scrutinized because the DPRK government restricts the ability of donor agencies to operate in the country. Compounding the problem is that South Korea and China, by far North Korea's two most important providers of food aid, have little to no monitoring systems in place. This may help explain why, in the summer of 2005, the North Korean government announced it would no longer need humanitarian assistance from the United Nations, including from the World Food Program (WFP), the primary channel for U.S. food aid. Part of Pyongyang's motivation appears to be a desire to negotiate a less intrusive monitoring presence. In response, the WFP shut down its operations and the United States has suspended its food aid shipments. The WFP subsequently negotiated a scaled-down "development" assistance program with the North Korean government. The WFP says that food conditions have worsened for some groups since North Korea introduced economic reforms in 2002. U.S. officials, including President Bush, have indicated that United States development assistance might be forthcoming if North Korea begins dismantling its nuclear programs.

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