SEOUL: South Korean farmers are asking to provide rice to North Korea to decrease the surplus in the domestic rice market and facilitate a peaceful inter-Korean mood at the same time.
Last Friday, the North Jeolla Province branch of the Korean Peasants League hosted its annual “unification harvest” event, which follows its June rice-planting. The league has organized the event each year in the hopes of sending rice to North Korea but has not been permitted to do so.
“The Ministry of Unification (MoU) has not allowed it, so we’ve gathered the profits as a fund for future inter-Korean projects (in the agricultural sector),” the spokesperson of the North Jeolla Province branch told NK News.
The increase in the rice surplus, caused by rice imports and continuing bumper harvests, is aggravating the economic burden of South Korean farmers. The demand for rice in 2015 is 3.97 million tons, and 288,000 tons in surplus is expected. The South Korean government is already set to obtain 1.37 million tons of rice from them.
Accordingly, the market price of rice has decreased remarkably. Prices for narak, or rice that hasn’t been removed from its hull are down about 13 percent from last year and are expected to decrease more, said Kim Jeong-yong, the secretary general of the North Jeolla Province branch of Korea Peasants League, told NK News.
Kim said the difference means about 10 million won less income for a farmer with 100 majigi (16 acres). Kim Kwang-soo, a lawmaker who represents the area urged the resumption of rice aid to North Korea, as well as ceasing imports of rice for food.
“(The South Korean government) should establish the Inter-Korean Joint Food Plan to exchange rice from the South and mineral resources from the North, for mutual supplementation,” he said last Friday.
From 2000 to 2005, 400,000 tons of rice aid was sent to the North Korea every year, which decreased the rice in stock. “The rice aid to the North depends on the political relations between the South and North, and is effective to deal with rice in stock over a short period,” a report from the Korea Rural Economic Institute, published last month reads.
The nine times North Korea was given rice provisions it was usually as a loan, except for three times in which it was considered free support.
Lawmaker Choi Gyu-seong from the New Politics Alliance for Democracy (NPAD) proposed a resolution on September 24 calling for 400,000 tons of rice aid to North Korea for humanitarian purposes.
“By providing 400,000 tons of rice to North, the price of rice increases about 7,000 to 8,000 won per 80 kilograms,” it reads. Kim Jeong-yong said the rice surplus in South doesn’t mean a unified Korea will also face a surplus.
“We are trying to send rice to the North, in preparation for the era of unification,” he said. The Korean Peasants League is talking with the Central Committee of the Union of Agricultural Workers of Korea from the North to organize a harvest festival with North Korean farmers in December.
