Oxfam's withdrawal from North Korea last week, and the unprecedented statement produced by the aid agencies working there, come after years of submissively enduring obstruction by North Korean officials. In their statement, a copy of which has been seen by The Irish Times, the agencies indicate they have finally had enough of the "serious obstacles" put in the way of providing humanitarian assistance.
Aid agencies have for years avoided public comment about obstacles put in their way as they try to combat famine conditions resulting from several harvest failures. They feared going public would jeopardise their mission to alleviate suffering by offending the government of the Democratic Republic of North Korea (DPRK).
Mr Paddy Maguinness, deputy chief executive of Dublin-based Concern Worldwide, which has been involved in agricultural and other projects in North Korea for three years, confirmed yesterday that Concern signed the statement, which has yet to be released officially and which could cause a major crisis in relations between aid agencies and the DPRK government.
"We see the problems, and we understand Oxfam's reason to pull out," Mr Maguinness said. "There is a need for more access and transparency."
Concern had no intention of leaving, however - its access had actually increased from one county to six in the last three years, he said, but "we will keep everything under review."
Resentment has been building for a long time among aid agencies over restrictions on access to certain areas of North Korea, a ban on talking to ordinary people, and inability to monitor the results of aid schemes, while at the same time the DPRK spends billions of dollars on a missile programme.
It is understood, for example, that DPRK officials refused to allow Oxfam to test water from reservoirs for which the agency had supplied chlorine, making it impossible to confirm if the chlorine was used. It was also denied access to rural areas with insanitary water.
Aid workers are also unhappy that they have to pay for coal to heat freezing hospitals, when the coal is produced locally and delivered in North Korean trucks. "But if we don't do as they ask, the patients freeze," one said.
The EU this month provided Concern and two other agencies with funds to purchase 1,000 tons of coal at $31 a ton to supply heat to 27 hospitals for the winter.
North Korean officials learned about the statement, which is the consensus of all the agencies and UN workers, by monitoring fax traffic among aid agency offices in Pyongyang, an aid worker said, and they called in Mr David Morton, UN humanitarian co-ordinator in North Korea, to complain.
In the statement, aid workers said they wished "to highlight areas of concern regarding humanitarian assistance in the DPRK". They were agreed that "the humanitarian crisis is still on-going, with particular areas and segments of the population experiencing greater difficulty than others.
"Malnutrition, safe water, adequate sanitation and public health in general remain serious problems to be addressed. Programmes in these areas continue to suffer from difficult operating conditions that limit and constrain implementation, accountability, verification and access to the most vulnerable."
It says that the restrictive conditions "present a serious obstacle to the promotion of humanitarian principles and verification of humanitarian assistance", and that "only with adherence to these operating principles will we be able to work towards helping those in greatest need with accountable assistance . . ."
Last year the French organisation, Medecins Sans Frontieres, withdrew in protest against nonco-operation and alleged diversion of food aid to senior officials and arms factories.
Improved harvests and donations have eased North Korea's food crisis, but there are still chronic fuel and medicine shortages, Mr Morton said this week. On Tuesday Japan said it would lift all sanctions against North Korea and unfreeze food aid.