An updated version, of course. And mostly composite. And smaller.
Posted on 03/04/2010 5:44:14 PM PST by TigerLikesRooster
N.Korean Economy Grinds to a Halt
North Korea's economy is essentially paralyzed since a disastrous currency reform in December.
Radio Free Asia on Wednesday quoted a member of an American NGO who recently visited the North to deliver aid as saying shops in Pyongyang are empty, there are few foreigners in hotels, and construction has come to a standstill.
The American recalled that even no kimchi, the staple spicy delicacy of Korea, was found among dishes of Korean food served in the Koryo Hotel. He wondered if the hotel could not afford to make it due to skyrocketing prices. He had visited the North for more than 10 years, but it was the first time no kimchi was served, he added.
RFA quoted a Western diplomat in Pyongyang as saying foreigners travel to the Chinese border town of Dandong at weekends because they cannot find daily necessities even in designated shops in the North.
Since the surprise currency reform, prices have soared and trade of daily necessities has come to a virtual halt, RFA said. Some 80 percent of North Koreans consider the currency reform a failure, it added.
P!
Yeah I bet they still can’t afford it
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100305/ap_on_re_eu/eu_austria_nkorean_defector
Like I said in another thread; South Korea needs to start loading the balloons they float over North Korea with Ruger LCP 380’s with extra magazines and ammo instead of literature. If the people are going to starve to death, they might as well have a fighting chance against this madman.
Kimchi is a delicacy? It's spicy fermented cabbage! A variant of sauerkraut! If they can't afford cabbage, .....
Hmmmm...it’s sickening how much his stories sound like our “Glorious Leader”..........Living in luxury while denouncing Capitalism and Decadence..........Date night in New York on Air Force One durring a recession anyone????
Or a quick trip to the Ranch in Crawford Texas.
You could really say that
I feel torn; while the report is plausible, my past experience is after a huge blizzard of, “The North is Grinding to a Halt”-stories, inevitably what I hear is very loud screaming for the US, Japan, or usally SK to pony up a WHOLE lot of cash.
It has been that way for....25 years or more.
Sure —things suck up there in a huge way. But my mere act of caring advances the cause of the DPRK, perhaps.
How do I care for the victims, but stymie those responsible? That’s really HARD.
I agree —the North does NOT need money, or food. They need lightwieght, small, simple GUNS, and in very great numbers.
The cops and soldiers need to feel in the back of their minds that they could be approached by a buxom lass in need of directions, only to suddenly be shot in the back of the head.
Sorry..!
An updated version, of course. And mostly composite. And smaller.
Thanks for the reminders about one of the most desperate situations in the world.
One of my favorite episodes of MASH>........
Frank Burns suspects the Koreans of planting bombs in the fields surrounding the base. Burns takes an EOD unit out into the field and the dig up a pot of Kimchi.
Hawkeys announces to Frank......My god, Frank.....You’ve struck cabbage!!!!!
Gulp.
If they couldn't afford to serve Kimchi, What WAS served?
The recent sentiment among N. Korea so-called experts of S. Korea and U.S. along with many ordinary S. Koreans is that N. Korea would inevitably collapse and we allow it to, because helping them won't make them change their behavior. They will keep developing nukes and ICBM and no liberalization of any sorts.
I am sure there are still those who insist that appeasement is the only way. However, since situation on the ground is deteriorating politically, it may not get much support. No point in propping up a system which is about to collapse. This is where N. Korea was in mid-90's It was about to collapse. Then full-scale appeasement started, led by S. Korea's pro-North government of Kim Dae-jung and deluded Clinton gang.
Would China allow North Korea to collapse? Also, if that a-hole Chia Head is replaced, do you think it would be possible for his replacement to give up on those nukes? Or is the entire NK political establishment committed to those things?
“The American recalled that even no kimchi, the staple spicy delicacy of Korea, was found among dishes of Korean food served in the Koryo Hotel.”
Kimchi gives me gas, and makes my breath smell like ass.
I guess the potato is a staple food, and mashing it makes it a delicacy.
As for prospect of post-Kim Jong-il era, the door is open for wide range of possibilities. It would be hard to tell which one would pan out. Outsiders will definitely intervene or try to influence the outcome, and some of them have opposing interests. It is a complicating factor to the situation which is unpredictable on its own.
They've already set up prepositioned refugee camps near the border of North Korea and boosted their military presence there as well.
But most telling is that China now claims that the ancient Korean kingdom of Koguryo, which was historically located in North Korea... was actually Chinese territory. This is very similar to the tactic they used to justify their annexation of Tibet back in the 1950s.
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