North Korea's 'Rubber Stamp' Parliament Meets as UN Warns of Malnutrition

A day after the UN issued a dire warning that 70 percent of North Koreans lack sufficient food supplies, the country's Parliament met for a rare session Thursday, ceremonially hearing government plans to increase self-reliance and living standards in the kingdom.

North Korea's Supreme People's Assembly usually meets once or twice every year. At this week's session, Prime Minister Pak Pong-Ju told the parliament that 2014 had been "a year of shining victories, as the foundation for winning a final victory in all fields of building a thriving nation was consolidated."

"The main thrusts for this year are to organize the economic work with a main emphasis on solving the food problem of the people with agriculture, stock breeding, and fisheries as the three pivots, drastically increasing power production and putting metal industry on Juche (self-reliance) basis," said Pak, according to official North Korean news agency KCNA.

Close to 690 legislators attended the session in the capitol Pyongyang. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, who skipped this fall convening, also did not appear on Thursday. Kim, however, made an inspection the day before — his second this month — at a machine plant, where KCNA reported he "looked round the room for education in the revolutionary history."

As Kim was surveying the machine plant, the UN's office in North Korea — officially called the Democratic People's Republic of Korea — issued what has become an annual call for funds to finance its humanitarian operations in the DPRK. In a report, the office said it faced a $111 million shortfall in 2015 as it tried to bridge a gap in food supplies that are insufficient for 70 percent of the population — some 18 million people.

In 2014, UN agencies in North Korea received less than $50 million in financing, down from $300 million a decade prior. The report said the North Korean government had agreed with the UN to prioritize in the coming year assistance to children, pregnant women, and the elderly, as well as preparation for natural disasters.

Orla Fagan, Asia Pacific spokesperson for the UN's humanitarian office, told VICE News that gaping funding needs in conflict zones like Syria and the Central African Republic have led to donor fatigue, particularly in a country as impervious as North Korea.

She added that many would-be donors question financing humanitarian operations in North Korea, because they felt Kim Jong-un was spending too much of the country's meager resources on the military and other expenditures.

According to KCNA, North Korean minister of finance Ki Kwang Ho told the SPA that last year, 15.9 percent of government spending went towards defending the country — a figure that is impossible to verify. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Pak stressed the country would not give up on its "strategic" goal of "building a nuclear force."

North Korea is believed to have carried out three nuclear tests since 2006. This week, South Korean officials said the North had launched two surface to air missiles, just days before the arrival of US Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter in South Korea. The missiles reportedly traveled only a short distance before falling into the ocean.

Though malnutrition has fallen since periods of famine in the 1990s, the UN report estimated that 27.9 percent of children under five are still stunted from lack of proper alimentation. Four percent faced "wasting," or becoming acutely malnourished.

Related: Launching Balloons into North Korea: Propaganda Over Pyongyang

North Korea's relationship with the UN is filled with contradictions. Last year, DPRK officials excoriated the findings of a human rights commission of inquiry that found violations in the country had no "parallel in the contemporary world." Calling the inquiry a ploy by the US and its allies to instigate regime change, North Korea threatened to deploy its nuclear stockpile. The country later released its own report that concluded it had "the world's most advantageous human rights system."

But North Korea also relies heavily on humanitarian efforts coordinated by a small group of UN and NGO workers it allows to operate, under close watch, in Pyongyang. UN aid officials, keen to separate their work from the country's human rights record and political tussles, say North Korean bureaucrats work with them to tabulate humanitarian data and form action plans.

Fagan told VICE News that a delicate ballet with North Korea's secretive government means allowing its ministries to vet some UN publications. Wednesday's report, titled "Needs and Priorities," was shown to officials and "it went out with their blessing, but a lot of the language was changed," she explained.

The final report, she conceded, "Maybe wasn't as strong as it should be."

"We can't get involved in the politics of the country," she said. "The president will continue with whatever programs he has, regardless. It's a matter of seeing the humanitarian need."

James Hoare, a research associate at the University of London's Center of Korean Studies, told VICE News that despite the optics of paying to feed citizens of a regime that draws enmity from most of the world — and shows few signs of changing its internal politics — not doing so would result in little other than greater starvation and suffering.

"They are still human beings, and if they are hungry, they should be supported," said Hoare, who in 2003 established the United Kingdom's embassy in North Korea. "The people have no control over the government. Why should you punish the people because of their government?"

Thursday's parliamentary session largely echoed Kim's self-assessment given during a New Year's speech, when he said 2014 had been a "year of brilliant triumph." At the time, Kim acknowledged the "difficult situation and adverse conditions" of the previous year, but cited stepped up production in agriculture, fisheries and industry as "opening up bright prospects for the building of an economic giant and the improvement of people's living standards."

Aidan Foster-Carter, honorary senior research fellow in sociology and modern Korea at Leeds University, told VICE News it was little surprise that Pak's speech closely followed that of the Supreme Leader's three months prior. The SPA, he said, essentially serves to "rubber stamp" whatever the regime has already decided.

"One day suffices to hear a report on the economy, and to approve the current year's budget and any personnel changes," said Foster-Carter. "You wouldn't think it convinces anyone, even themselves, but it's a sort of fig leaf."

Budget increases or decreases are given in terms of percentages — with no base expenditure data — making determinations of overall spending on various sectors a fool's errand. Indeed, Finance Minister Ki reported to the SPA that said overall spending is expected to rise by 5.5 percent this year, but gave no baseline figure.

Foster-Carter pointed out that North Korea's official budget and black-market fueled economy is so opaque that their chief benefactor, China, has reportedly refused to allow their communist neighbor to join a new Asian bank established by Beijing.

Undeterred, Ki said the spending surge would helped with undertake "the grandiose plan of the party," as KCNA put it.

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