The North Korean famine of the mid-1990s posed challenging ethical and humanitarian dilemmas for foreign aid workers who responded to the crisis. It also yielded a paradox: Despite the antipathy of the North Korean system to outside religious influence (revealed most clearly by the harsh treatment of North Korean refugees who had contact with churches or Christians while in China and were subsequently captured and returned to the North), it is primarily American NGOs with financial backing from religious organizations that have maintained development and exchange programs with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).
The relationship between DPRK authorities and American religiously funded NGOs has continued despite recovery from the famine and the advent of an international diplomatic crisis surrounding North Korea’s nuclear weapons development. Other NGO programs have largely dried up with the easing of the food crisis and the end of U.S. government humanitarian assistance to American NGOs working in the DPRK. In examining these religiously funded NGOs, this article will attempt to explore the motivations and measures for their success, the criteria under which they operate, and the nature of their interactions with the DPRK government on monitoring and transparency issues.
To read or purchase the full text of this article, click here.
More in this issue
![](https://cdn.carnegiecouncil.org/media/eia/_900x525_crop_center-center_none_ns/Does-Foreign-Aid-Really-Work.jpg?v=1721289357)
Winter 2007 (21.4) • Review
Does Foreign Aid Really Work? by Roger C. Riddell & Foreign Aid: Diplomacy, Development, Domestic Politics by Carol Lancaster
These two recent works by Roger C. Riddell and Carol Lancaster display a sober understanding of aid challenges, present a balanced view of the context ...
![](https://cdn.carnegiecouncil.org/media/eia/_900x525_crop_center-center_none_ns/Promoting-the-Rule-of-Law-Abroad-In-Search-of-Knowledge.jpg?v=1721256303)
Winter 2007 (21.4) • Review
Promoting the Rule of Law Abroad: In Search of Knowledge, edited by Thomas Carothers
This book is an attempt to collect some of the little known about Rule-of-law (ROL) reform, and it does this creditably. Although the book's contributors ...
Winter 2007 (21.4) • Essay
Expanding Europe: The Ethics of EU-Turkey Relations
The possible future EU membership of Turkey has become one of the most hotly debated topics both in the EU and within Turkey itself. Underlying ...