MILLIONS of North Koreans face famine and starvation over the country’s bitterly harsh winter if the international community cuts off humanitarian food aid in retaliation for their government’s nuclear test, according to UN officials, aid workers and human rights groups.

Even before last Monday’s explosion the country faced a food crisis after a long-term decline in foreign food aid and summer floods that killed hundreds and washed away fields of rice and wheat. A cut in aid could trigger a repeat of the famine of the late 1990s when up to three million are thought to have starved to death.

“Sanctions will definitely cost lives,” says Erica Kang of Good Friends, the South Korean NGO that monitors conditions inside North Korea. “Even now we’re very concerned about food shortages and this is a time of relative abundance as the harvest is being brought in.”

The UN Security Council agreed on Saturday to impose sanctions after five days of negotiation. The resolution empowers nations to inspect ships to check for weapons of mass destruction or their component parts where “necessary” — a word that may provide a get-out for countries such as Russia, China and South Korea who are anxious not to precipitate the sudden collapse of the North Korean regime.

The resolution bans the trade of technology related to weapons of mass destruction, heavy conventional weapons and luxury goods, and authorises inspection of suspicious bank accounts.

“It is gangster-like for the Security Council to have adopted today a coercive resolution while neglecting the nuclear threat and moves for sanctions and pressure of the US against (North Korea),” said Pak Kil Yon, the country’s ambassador to the UN.

The closed nature of North Korea makes it impossible to know the extent of suffering, but evidence indicates that one in six of its 23 million people will go hungry without foreign aid. There will be a shortfall of 600,000 to 800,000 tonnes of grain, according to the UN World Food Programme.

WFP plans to provide 75,000 tonnes this year and next. It was expected that the remainder would be made up by donations from South Korea and China, its Cold War sponsor.

Foreign aid has fallen in recent years. China’s planned provision this year is less than half that of last year. South Korea suspended aid after missile tests in July, restoring it only after the floods.

Now both countries are under pressure to halt aid.

“As the international community responds to North Korea’s nuclear test it must distinguish between the government and ordinary citizens,” said Sophie Richardson of Human Rights Watch. “North Korea’s nuclear weapons can have devastating security implications in the region but suspending food aid could be lethal for North Koreans.”

North Korea admitted foreign aid agencies for the first time after the 1990s famine, but it has swung uneasily between welcoming and resenting their presence. So far WFP has raised only 10 per cent of the $102 million that it needs to provide for its target of 1.9 million people over the next two years. As a result it will feed only half of that total and, unless further pledges are forthcoming, the food will run out in January.

The floods washed away as many as 100,000 tonnes of grain. Even in the capital, state food distribution has been suspended since April and people are forced to rely on private markets that are increasingly tolerated by the authorities.

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