During the 1990’s Famine, at least 600,000 starved in North Korea. Photo courtesy Justin Kilcullen, director Irish Catholic charity Trocaire, 1997.
Southern people whose ancestors lived through the War Between the States should understand more than other Americans what suffering can come from being on the losing side of a war—and in particular, a war fought using blockades and embargoes to starve the enemy into submission.
U.S. militarists discovered as early as 1781 when the British were starved out of Yorktown—and again in the early 1860’s when the South was starved into submission—that tightening a country’s supply of essentials is a winning military strategy. After all, the Romans’ seven-month siege of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. was highly effective, though over a million Jews perished and 90,000 were enslaved, and the famous siege of Masada resulted in 1,000 suicides. With the siege of Stalingrad (1942-43), two million perished, 13,000 Russian soldiers were executed for wanting to desert, and 104,000 German prisoners also perished.
Sieges are very effective in warfare—but the most effective also have high casualty numbers as a result.
The Southern people had a Blockade encircling the South which had terrible effects. The women of Richmond were arrested in the Bread Riots there, where they demanded food. Soldiers were deserting the army due to hunger as the war was closing down, and many children and babies died during and after the war. Diseases like typhus spread even up to the turn of the century to 1900.
Is this form of “warfare” the type we want? Prior to the Iraq War, embargoes and sanctions led to charges of the people of Iraq needing essentials like medicine and everyday basics. Shouldn’t we carefully consider whether current sanctions might lead to war with North Korea?
Since North Korea closed the border last year because of COVID, the effects have lent to scarcity they already had, and typhoons added to agricultural failures in the country. The country may soon re-open its border with China, but as of now, it is reported they have a lack of medicine and essential supplies, adequate food for the population and that diseases like typhoid are spreading. It may be that the trade “back-up” with America—where ships are stuck in US harbors waiting to unload with pigs and other agricultural goods from the Midwest to the Orient have been severely limited—has also added to the strain.
Going back to the 1950’s, sanctions were put into place to control actions of North Korea; in the 1990’s these were eased as during that time period, estimates are that between 600,000 and 3 million died due to starvation from famines!
In 2003, North Korea refused to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the United Nations Security Council began adding TRADE BANS, first on weapons related materials and goods. This expanded to include luxury items to target the elite.
Coals shipments banned from North Korea typically hurts the people instead of the ruling factions, thus putting pressure on leaders from the people, if they dare speak up.
More recently, the embargoes had been increased to include the ban of natural gas sales, even coal shipments and work authorizations for its nationals. Financial assets, banking transactions, and general travel and trade have been targeted. China also suspended its North Korea coal imports in 2017 with mounting pressure from the UN and USA, “striking at the regime’s financial lifeline,” according to one report.
In 2018, Indonesia detained one of North Korea’s largest cargo ships containing a coal shipment in defiance of sanctions; in May 2019, the U.S. announced that it taken custody of the ship, the “Wise Honest.”
According to the WHO, it is estimated that sanctions in 2018 resulted in 4,000 preventable deaths due to delays in exemptions for programs by NGO’s and UN humanitarian agencies. In addition, the World Food Programme and Food and Agriculture Organization report that the negative effects of irrigation and yield in food production due to restrictions in machinery, spare parts, fuels and fertilizer because of trade bans have increased effects of the current famine and rising concern for food.
While the United States and other nations certainly have a real concern for the North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un’s interest in missiles and wonder what production of nuclear-type weapons may be currently in the country, do we still believe it wise to use an ancient and often barbaric means of controlling a nation which can lead to so much human suffering and tragedy? If we suspect real human suffering in North Korean, we should back down from trade bans that cause it, and we should also do our part in helping ease real human suffering with food and other basic aid.
Lisa Carol Rudisill, M.T.S., is a magna cum laud graduate of NC State University and Liberty University where she earned a Master of Theology. She writes novels about her family history during the Civil War in North and South Carolina. She is a freelance writer, editorialist and a contributor to The Standard newspaper.
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