Shubham Sunil Bhagat
Symbiosis School of International Studies
On 24th of July 2020, the Republic of India, positively responded to a request by the World Health Organization to aid the National Tuberculosis Programme of the Ministry of Public Health, Government of the Democratic Republic of Korea by extending medical assistance of 1 million USD. The medical assistance is being provided to the DPRK under the auspices of the World Health Organization.
“India is sensitive to the shortage of medical supply situation in DPRK1 and decides to grant humanitarian assistance of US$1mn in the form of anti-Tuberculosis medicines”
—Ministry of External Affairs
DPRK’s current domestic funding under the Anti-Tuberculosis program is approximately USD 6 million. According to the Programmatic Management of Drug Resistant Tuberculosis (PMDT) Report 2018, there is a huge funding gap of USD 70 million. Figure 1 provides an overview of the deficits in the program funding from 2014 to 2018. Considering that the ongoing pandemic is aggravating the situation, the assistance couldn’t have come at a better time.
Trend in the Anti-Tuberculosis Funding Programme in the DPRK (Bhatia & Regional Office for South-East Asia (SEARO), World Health Organization (WHO), 2018, p. 17)
Time and again, India has unselfishly provided several assistances to the DPRK. The most notable of them all is the assistance provided by the 60th Para Field Ambulance, a medical unit of the Indian Army consisting of 346 personnel that looked after 200,000 wounded soldiers and carried out 2,300 field surgeries in the service span of three and a half years. In September 2002 and July 2004, India donated 2,000 and 1000 Megatonne of white rice respectively. As a goodwill gesture, India, in January 2006, once again donated 2,000 Megatonne of rice as a gift from the Government of India. Food assistance worth US$ 1 million was provided through the World Food Programme (WFP) in the years 2011 and 2016 respectively. As they say, do good and good will come to you. In 2004, when Tsunami struck the Indian shores, the DPRK Government generously donated US$ 30,000 to the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund to relieve the devastations caused by the catastrophic event.
India has always had a keen interest in North Korea. Pyongyang has reciprocated by the same token. Since 1962, the DPRK has laboriously maintained good diplomatic and trade relations with India. Even though DPRK remains globally disconnected owing to the UNSC sanctions, it still considers India to be the Damion to its Pythias. For an aeon, India has been DPRK’s second- largest trading partner, immediately after the People’s Republic of China. According to the statistics provided by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Observatory of Economic Complexity, India made up about 1.43 per cent ($4.17 million) of North Korea’s exports and 1.35 per cent ($31.3 million) of its imports in 2018. As per the same statistics, DPRK exports Raw Zinc (51.1%), Measuring Instruments (7.68%), Non-Optical Microscopes (5.04%), Industrial Printers (2.97%), Broadcasting Equipment (2.88%), and Propylene Polymers (2.75%) to India and in return imports goods such as Iron Ore (41.4%), Packed Medicaments (10.4%), Non-Retail Pure Cotton Yarn (6.33%), Vegetable Saps (2.16%) and Nitrogen Heterocyclic Compounds to name a few.
“Quem não se comunica se trumbica”
— JOSÉ ABELARDO BARBOSA DE MEDEIROS
For a long time, India has played an indecisive role in the East-Asian politics and now she may be looking to change the dynamics. It wouldn’t hurt to consider that India’s bonhomie with both the Koreas’ has improved her chances to mediate the Korean Peninsular Crisis. By putting together a new and meaningful dialogue between the belligerent parties, India may play a potentially noteworthy role in the distribution of global financial stability, public health and security, also commonly known as the global public goods. Presently, India has the key to unlock a seventy-year-old ideological door and she may do so by promoting the right communication, summitry and confidence-building measures. Such actions will only put India in the driver’s seat and reaffirm her responsibility as a significant global player.
“In the COVID and the post-COVID world, India will continue to provide leadership and a new orientation for a reformed multilateral system”
— PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF INDIA, T.S. TIRUMURTI
Alleged yet true, North Korea’s surreptitious nuclear cooperation with Pakistan concerns India. and she will thereby seek to counterpoise her immediate and pugnacious neighbours by influencing the DPRK. Furthermore, India’s vision to become a five trillion economy rests overly on the regional stability and hence resolving the Korean Peninsular Crisis becomes exceedingly important not only for India, but also for the world. We can only wait and see how India brings Pyongyang closer to accepting the global community. For once, the world may witness a Korean summit that isn’t negotiated based on a threat of nuclear explosion.
REFERENCES:
- DPRK – Democratic Republic of Korea
- Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India. (2020, July 22). Humanitarian assistance to the people of Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. https://www.mea.gov.in/press-releases.htm?dtl/32847/ Humanitarian+assistance+to+the+people+of+Democratic+Peoples+Republic+of+Korea
- Bhatia, V., & Regional Office for South-East Asia (SEARO), World Health Organization (WHO). (2018). rGLC Country Support Mission Report. World Health Organization (WHO)
- Ramachandran, D. P. (2017, March 19). The doctor-heroes of war. The Hindu. https://www.thehindu.com/ opinion/open-page/the-doctor-heroes-of-war/article17529390.ece
- Embassy of India Pyongyang, Government of India. (2019, March). India-DPR Korea Relations. Embassy of India Pyongyang
- The Observatory of Economic Complexity. (n.d.). North Korea (PRK) Exports, Imports, and Trade Partners. OEC – The Observatory of Economic Complexity. Retrieved July 31, 2020, from https://oec.world/en/profile/ country/prk/#economic-complexity
- The Diplomat. (2020, May 6). Time for India to Try Its Hand at Brokering Peace on the Korean Peninsula. https://thediplomat.com/2020/05/time-for-india-to-try-its-hand-at-brokering-peace-on-the-korean-peninsula/
- Sreenivasan, T. (2020, July 3). In an uncertain world, a seat at the global high table. The Hindu. https:// www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/in-an-uncertain-world-a-seat-at-the-global-high-table/article31973275.ece
