For our user agree- ment, click here . The notion that aid agencies have been hoodwinked by a greedy North Korean government, willing to hold its people hostage, has raised the volume of calls to cut off all food and medical aid to the famine-stricken country. Refugees provide compelling accounts of promised food aid that either never arrived or was turned over to the families of Communist Party officials. A recent article in The Washington Post described the sale of teen-age North Korean girls as brides to Chinese farmers. But North Korea's borders are closed to the media, which can only tell the story of refugees who fled.
Aid agencies tell a different story.
But food aid is getting to the vulnerable populations, especially children. Progress is being made, Culver says. Over the last year and a half, we have received increasing cooperation from the North Koreans. Two years ago there were no monitors. Culver says there is no evidence that aid has been diverted to the military.