N. Korean Army Running out of Food...Soldiers Ordered to Sleep Rather Than Do Training

Donga Ilbo ^ | 03/04/10 | Zu Sung-ha

[TigerLikesRooster]

/begin my excerpts

N. Korean Army Running out of Food...Soldiers Ordered to Sleep Rather Than Do Training

2010-03-04 03:00

Sources, "Officers go AWOL for a long time to feed himself."

N. Korea's recent shortage of food is reaching close to the level during the famine in 90's, aka 'March of Suffering.' In particular, discontinued food aid from international community is reportedly hurting soldiers most.

Sources say that food situation in N. Korean military have rapidly deteriorated since the second half of last year. Civilians learned to survive without government ration, but soldiers cannot survive unless the state provide them with food. Stopped food aid from international community dealt a serious blow to them.

According to one of the sources, since the latter part of last year, many units can only provide a few dozen corn kernels or a couple of potatos (per meal) and they have only enough for two meals (a day.) Order came down to make soldiers sleep in the afternoon and not put them into training or work as much as possible.

Another source said, "Malnutrition among soldiers are increasing fast, and I have even seen a case of an unmarried company commissar who went home, stayed for a month, 'replenish himself with calories', before returning (back to his unit.)"

/end my excerpts

[C210N]

Cue -14bama sending extra MREs in.... 3.... 2.... 1....

[FlingWingFlyer]

This is what BO wants America to become. It’s not fair that we eat Big Macs and drive our SUVs while North Koreans and others starve to death. We should all starve. It’s how you “save da planet” don’t you know.

[Army Air Corps]

When the Army gets hungry, things get dicey.

[null and void]

First rule of successful dictatorship - don’t piss off your military.

[the Real fifi]

Tiger, I ALWAYS ENJOY READING WHAT YOU POST. Is this a South Korean publication? Did you translate it? How reliable is the source?

[TigerLikesRooster]

All this information leaking out to the outside world. A great embarrassment to Chia Head. It must be really infuriating. Hence, repeatedly issuing decrees to crack down on cellphone or other way of communication to outside world. According to latest report, it would now earn mandatory execution by firing squad.

However, defectors in S. Korea still maintains extensive network of stringers inside N. Korea, providing day-to-day situation.

[elpinta]

The price of communism, where we are headed.
All I can say is that the US Military is educated (this may make a big difference at some point soon...).

[TigerLikesRooster]

This is from a major S. Korean daily Donga Ilbo (one of the top three.) The article is in Korean. I translated first half and posted it.

It may hit foreign media later, sometimes in a day or two sometimes longer. On certain occasion, this kind of information got embedded in a related (foreign) article published later. I am just trying to give you the first crack.

There is certain amount of noise in these kind of reports. Sometimes several versions are floating around, and in some cases contradict each other.

However, malnutrition and hunger has been going on for some years. That is nothing new, but ordering them to take the afternoon off and go to sleep is a new development.

[americanophile]

My God, if the army is starving, what must be the condition of the poor citizens? What a horror that country is.

[TigerLikesRooster]

The reporter for this article, Zu Sung-ha, is a defector from Pyongyang who attended Kim Il-sung University, the best and the most selective(not just academically but also ideologically) university in N. Korea. He is no doubt from N. Korea's elite, and may have some connection among elite circle of N. Korea.

[AliVeritas]

Indeed.

[NonValueAdded]

Special contingency plan for SK ... should NK ever attack, saturate the battlefield with food. The advancing army will stop, gorge themselves into a stupor, and then you can go and round ‘em up.

[TigerLikesRooster]

I suspect that if Chia Head orders full-scale invasion, many of these malnourished soldiers find the field combat too physically demanding and pass out in the battlefield. As you said, if SK military broadcast the promise that they get to eat three meals a day, all of which are white rice and meat soup, thousands could lay down their arms and gladly become POW.

They are chronically malnourished, barely strong enough to walk around. Many of them may have occasional blackouts from anemia due to malnutrition. You can't fight under this condition.

[happyathome]

Tiger - just out of curiosity, what is the opinion of the ROK people to eventual reunification? Are they studying the German example to project the costs/pitfalls, or is it too soon to start thinking about it?

[TigerLikesRooster]

Many are torn between imperative of unification and its cost. This is the angle the local left wants to exploit. They don't want S. Korea to unify the Peninsula on its terms. However, Chia Head's bandit style antics pissed off too many here. They now want Kim Jong-il gone.

The most likely scenario, if S. Korea has it way, is that N. Korea becomes S. Korea's protectorate, and maintains border and different economy, while politically managed by S. Korea. Then allow N. Korea to use its labor cost and low currency to develop its economy concentrating on labor-intensive industry first. Probably outsourced factories of major S. Korean corporation will relocate to N. Korea. However, breakup of N. Korean regime has unpredictable elements, and things can happen which is beyond any outsider's control.

[Jet Jaguar]

BTTT

[GovernmentShrinker]

Try reading the article. The ordinary citizens are much better off. That’s why some of the soldiers are going AWOL, so they can go home and eat.

[americanophile]

I tried, but it's in a language I can't read - presumably Korean. As for the reliabilty of the translation, I can only speculate, but no part of me believes that the North Korean Army will starve before the citizenry...try reading any other article about the North Korean food situation from the past 10+ years.

[wendy1946]

It isn’t obvious that the recent history is any guide here. Any quasi-normal people still alive will have found ways to eat just enough to stay alive by now while the same is not necessarily true for soldiers as the article mentions and if the soldiers are too weak to function, they’ll also be too weak to take food from civilians.