WRITTEN QUESTION E-2375/01 by Olivier Dupuis (TDI) to the Commission. The situation in North Korea.
Date: 2001-08-08
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: China, EU aid, North Korea, aid to agriculture, food aid, refugee, summit meeting, technical cooperation, use of aid

16.5.2002

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 115 E/67

EU Member States are bound by international agreements on asylum, particularly the 1951 Geneva
Convention and the 1967 Protocol relating to the status of refugees and the European Convention on
Human Rights. At the Tampere European Council of 15 and 16 October 1999 they also gave political
undertakings to implement new European asylum provisions. Since spring 1999, the Commission has
submitted a series of initiatives to the Council and to Parliament to put these undertakings and provisions
is up to
into practice by introducing Community legislation. Until such legislation is adopted,
Member States to determine asylum status in accordance with policy whilst also complying with existing
Community legislation. On 20 July 2001,
the Council adopted Directive 2001/55/EC on minimum
standards for giving temporary protection in the event of a mass influx of displaced persons and on
measures promoting a balance of efforts between Member States in receiving such persons and bearing the
consequences thereof (1). The directive must be transposed into the national legislation of the Member States
by the end of December 2002.

it

The present circumstances do not justify an extraordinary EU operation to receive refugees. This is not to
say that persons of Chechen origin do not have valid individual reasons why they should receive
international protection in Member States
In these
circumstances, persons denied international protection in a Member State must have access to the means
to challenge such decisions or to substantiate claims that forced repatriation would put their lives at risk or
would not be practicable.

in accordance with international obligations.

The Commission has systematically made its concerns clear to its Russian interlocutors, at all including the
highest levels, both on the humanitarian situation in the Northern Caucasus in general and on the
operating conditions for non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in particular. The European Community,
through the Commission Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO), is by far the largest donor of humanitarian aid
to the civilians affected by the war in Chechnya. To date, the total ECHO contribution to the international
relief effort in the Northern Caucasus is € 44 million. The aim is to meet the basic humanitarian needs of
displaced persons and the most vulnerable elements of the population in Chechnya, as well as in
neighbouring republics, particularly Ingushetia and Dagestan where there are up to 170 000 displaced
civilians from Chechnya. This aid concentrates in particular on food and food security, medical care, relief
items, shelter and water sanitation.

(1) OJ L 212, 7.8.2001.

(2002/C 115 E/071)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2375/01

by Olivier Dupuis (TDI) to the Commission

(8 August 2001)

Subject: The situation in North Korea

Recent reports published by the media based on first-hand experience by North Korean refugees, who have
found asylum on the premises of the UN Commission for Refugees in Beijing, confirm the picture of
disaster-stricken country which has already emerged from all reports devoted to the situation in North
Korea, not least that produced by the Committee for Refugees of the US Congress. More than 10 % of the
population are said to have been killed by the famine, which has lasted since the mid-nineties, and the
number is constantly growing. One of the refugees in Beijing, referring to the humanitarian aid given to
the regime of Kim Yong Il, said that the products are certainly not distributed to the population. It
therefore emerges both from first-hand accounts and from other sources that there is not the slightest sign
of any change of direction on the part of Kim Yong Il’s regime in the last year, during which various
Member States of the Union have launched a policy of ‘normalisation’ towards the Pyongyang government,
endorsed by the EU with the visit by the Troika (Persson, Solana and Patten).

Are there any independent sources that the Commission can ask to ascertain what happens to the aid
provided by the Union? If it emerges that the aid is systematically diverted by the regime of Kim Yong Il,
will the Commission renegotiate the conditions for humanitarian aid granted to North Korea, making it

C 115 E/68

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

16.5.2002

dependent on tangible economic and political reforms, starting with the agricultural sector? Furthermore,
does the Commission intend to use its influence with the Chinese authorities to persuade them to abandon
their systematic policy of extradition with regard to the North Korean refugees who seek refuge and safety
in China?

Answer given by Mr Patten on behalf of the Commission

(11 October 2001)

Since 1995, the Commission provides humanitarian aid to North Korea, in the form of food aid (via the
Food Aid and Food Security Budget line) and humanitarian assistance (via the European Commission’s
Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO)).

The Commission has provided to North Korea a total of approximately € 168 million of food aid. Initially
a food aid assistance programme (mainly cereals, vegetable oil and sugar) it has increasingly been oriented
towards support to agricultural rehabilitation (mainly fertilisers, agricultural equipment and projects and
technical assistance support) with a view to supporting a sustainable increase in agricultural production as
a more coherent approach towards increased food security.

A sum of € 38 million has also been provided for humanitarian activities under the ECHO programme
such as provision of medicines, water, sanitation and winter cloths to the most vulnerable groups of the
North Korean population.

To oversee all these humanitarian and food security activities to monitor Community assistance and ensure
correct programme implementation under acceptable working conditions, a technical assistance office and
resident expert team have operated in Pyongyang on a permanent basis since 1997. The technical
assistance team has noted that, on the one hand, transfers of aid towards the distribution points have been
respected, and, on the other hand, the nutritional state of the population of the regions where Community
aid is sent, has improved.

The Commission remains concerned about the situation of those fleeing the Democratic People’s Republic
of Korea (DPRK) across the border with China. The issue has been recently raised at the EU-China Summit
on 5 September 2001. The Commission hopes that China, South Korea and the DPRK will cooperate fully
with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to resolve this problem.

(2002/C 115 E/072)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2376/01

by Ria Oomen-Ruijten (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(8 August 2001)

Subject: Frontier workers not accepted in Dutch private medical insurance schemes

1.
Is the Commission aware of the problems faced by those people who work in the Netherlands but
live in other Members States who come above the income ceiling for compulsory medical insurance but
are not accepted in private Dutch medical insurance schemes apart from schemes operated by one insurer
who asks for much higher premiums?

How can this non-acceptance or the payment of higher premiums be reconciled with the principle of

2.
Regulation 1612/68 (1), which prohibits discrimination on the grounds of nationality?

(1) OJ: English special edition, Series-I 68(II) P. 475.