HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE ORGANIZATIONS AND THEIR ROLE IN CRISIS RESPONSE ON THE KOREAN PENINSULA

Abstract

Throughout the past 70 years, the alliance between the United States and Republic of Korea (ROK or South Korea) has persisted in a dynamic security environment in which South Korea emerged as a middle-power with robust crisis management capabilities. Conversely, the 1995 famine in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK or North Korea) showcased the DPRK’s inability to provide basic services; it was the first time the regime solicited international humanitarian assistance, thus allowing international organizations and nongovernmental organizations to operate in the country. Social network analysis helps illuminate how the pedantic political relationship between the two Koreas caused fluctuations within the humanitarian assistance networks to the DPRK. Due to the ROK’s humanitarian assistance capabilities and the strength of the U.S.-ROK alliance, the United States is less likely to conduct unilateral humanitarian assistance operations. Although many capable nongovernmental organizations exist on the Korean Peninsula, the ever-changing geopolitical situation between the United States, ROK, and DPRK can restrict their ability to execute humanitarian operations there.