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Appendix

Amount of food rations under old ration system77

Class     Ration (per day)             Recipients

1          900 grams                     Workers with heavy-labor or hazardous occupations

2          800                               Miners, drivers of heavy equipment

3          700                               Regular workers

4          600                               College students, retired citizens of merit, patients

5          500                               Junior high school students

6          400                               Elementary school students

7          300                               Retired citizens, kindergartners, other dependents

8          200                               Children aged 2 - 4, prisoners

9          100                               Children aged one or younger                

North Korea’s grain production

Year                 RDA estimates78             North Korean estimates79          

1990                 4.020 million tons                       9.100 million tons

1991                 4.427 million tons

1992                 4.268 million tons

1993                 3.884 million tons

1994                 4.125 million tons                       7.083 million tons

1995                 3.451 million tons                       3.449 million tons

1996                 3.680 million tons                       2.502 million tons

1997                 3.489 million tons                       2.685 million tons

1998                 3.886 million tons                       3.202 million tons

1999                 4.222 million tons                       4.281 million tons

2000                 3.590 million tons                       3.262 million tons

2001                 3.946 million tons

2002                 4.134 million tons

2003                 4.253 million tons

2004                 4.311 million tons

2005                 4.540 million tons                       4.800 million tons80 (unofficial)

Food aid to North Korea by the international community,
including China and South Korea81

Year                 Aid                              

1995                 544,500 tons                 

1996                 510,000 tons

1997                 914,600 tons

1998                 812,400 tons

1999                 1,026,800 tons  

2000                 1,263,600 tons

2001                 1,525,600 tons

2002                 1,209,000 tons

2003                 863,800 tons

2004                 676,300 tons



[77] “Food rations by class,” Understanding North Korea 2005, Education Center for Unification, The Ministry of Unification, March 2006, pp 245-247.

[78] “Amount of Grain Production (in North Korea),” Rural Development Administration, emailed to Human Rights Watch in December 2005.

[79] DPRK second periodic report to CESCR. Economist Lee Suk says, there is a possibility North Korea exaggerated the amount of grain production until 1994, but the statistics released after 1995, the year North Korea began receiving international aid, are considered relatively trustworthy. Suk, The DPRK Famine of 1994-2000. 

[80] “North Korea’s Harvest Hits Record High Since 1990,” Radio Free Asia, October 26, 2005.

[81] The International Food Aid Information System, WFP.


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