Via Blake at ForeignPolicy.com, news of the latest casualty of rising food prices: detente with North Korea. Full details:
Measures to stabilize soaring domestic food prices in China have resulted in tighter controls on grain imports, which is likely to threaten food aid to North Korea. China is one of the largest providers of food aid to the impoverished North, where severe flooding in August destroyed crops and further depleted food supplies.
In Dandung, Liaoning Province, near China’s border with North Korea, food exports to the impoverished country have been completely suspended. Up until now, an average of approximately 1,200 tons of food has crossed the border every day, but as of the beginning of the year, the Chinese government has not issued any new permissions for exports. An official in Dandung said on January 4, “We can’t send trains carrying flour to North Korea. We have applied to the authorities for permission but we have no idea when we will get it.”
China’s Ministry of Commerce on January 1 issued emergency decrees, including an imposition of export duties of 5 to 25 percent on major grains such as rice, wheat, corn and beans. The ministry has also adopted an export quota system for powdered goods, including flour.
China began blocking grain exports in late December of last year in order to stabilize domestic food prices. On December 20, 2007, Beijing suddenly abolished tax incentives for grain exports. Since then, food assistance to North Korea has been completely stopped. As China has refused to permit food exports, officials are finding it useless to try to pay duties on grains.
As Blake reports, North Korea isn’t happy – and is once more lapsing into its habitual uncooperative stance on proliferation.
