U.S. Wavers, North Koreans Starve

You don’t make political points in Washington helping an odious North Korean regime, even with badly needed food. Congress always frightens administrations when North Korean food aid is raised, the State Department does not want to offend a resistant South Korea and the White House, beset with its own political problems, shows little interest. So we hear that North Korea does not need food aid, or it will be siphoned off by the military, or we can’t monitor it, or the regime has funds to take care of any food needs itself, or the problem is perennial because the North Korean agricultural system is awful or (most recently) that the problem is inflated—often all of these claims at once. To be sure, even if lots of kids get stunted and many more women produce defective babies, we will never hear much about it or see it on the tube. We can rest easy.