Crimes against Humanity? Malnutrition, Mortality and North Korea

Hazel Smith University of Central Lancashire (UK)

Thursday, April 9, 2015 4:30-6:00 P.M.

Location: Alexander Library Pane Room

Abstract: The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK, or North Korea) experienced economic collapse, a famine “in slow motion” in the early 1990s and subsequent chronic food shortages. A persistent stand of debate in the scholarly and policy literature charges the DPRK with committing crimes against humanity because of the government's alleged culpability in terms of 'starving' its people. Evidence for this proposition is founded on malnutrition figures and social indicators that include infant, child and maternal mortality statistics. A puzzle arises, however, in that a detailed analysis of the statistics demonstrates that North Korea's population experiences poverty and deprivation but that poverty conditions are by no means the worst in Asia and, in terms of key indicators, show a society that by 2012 was better off than the democratic and, in aggregate, richer nations, including India and Indonesia. This presentation by Dr. Hazel Smith asks the question as to why the conventional discourse on North Korea is not congruent with the statistical indicators that are freely available and easily accessible to researchers and concludes by arguing for a paradigmatic resetting of the scholarly and policy debate on North Korea.