Prayers for all the Korean citizens who are stuck under such an oppressive regime.
Posted on 08/04/2008 10:44:38 AM PDT by Abathar
BEIJING -- North Korea is heading toward its worst food crisis since the 1990s because of flooding, successive crop failures and worldwide inflation for staples such as rice and corn, the United Nations World Food Program said Wednesday.
The agency shied away from predicting another famine like the one that killed as many as 2 million people in the 1990s, but said its field staff was observing some of the same warning signs.
People are again foraging for wild plants, grass and seaweed to supplement their meager diets. Hospitals are reporting an increase in chronic diarrhea and illness that are often linked to malnutrition. Many families have cut back from three meals a day to two.
"We did go into the kitchens of some of these families and, believe me, there was nothing," said Jean-Pierre de Margerie, the World Food Program's director for North Korea, who supervised a recent study of 250 households.
When questioned about where they would get their next meal, many of the people interviewed offered vague answers, such as, "Well, I'm hoping my relatives who live on a cooperative farm will deliver some potatoes tonight."
"One of my team members came to me and said these households were in tears. They simply didn't have any options," De Margerie said at a news conference in Beijing.
Under North Korea's communist system, people living in the cities rely on a public distribution system for their staples, but the rations have been cut to one-third of their original levels. At the same time, their purchasing power has been eroded by inflation.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
It will start soon...and probably the US will back down again. Condi Rice is pretty much Madeline Albright with nicer legs....liberal, Globalist, and weak
And it has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with the mismanagement of a little pot-bellied dictator with a huge hat that has systematicly exploited and bullied his people, and whom owns all the weapons. Really.
When did the sabers STOP rattling?
Prayers for all the Korean citizens who are stuck under such an oppressive regime.
What can we really say, about a worker’s paradise that can’t feed their people?
They choose to devote enormous resources to developing their military and nuclear program but can’t feed themselves. Where are their priorities?
Could it be that communism just doesn’t work well in the real world?
Is it our fault that they choose to neglect their own people? Is it our fault that they build up their military because they feel threatened by us, or by South Korea?
I’m sure somehow Bush is at fault for not giving enough humanitarian aid to the Dear Leader for him to feed his people.
China has the money, as far as I am concerned they want to be a world power then they can help spread a little shiney around to help their friends in N.K. out.
As long a Kimmie get his $500,000 worth of wine, why is this even a story?/sarc
There was a show on tv a while back that demonstrated that exposing seeds to radiation would make the veggies grow faster and larger than normal. With their nuke material that they have (but deny) couldn’t they just nuke the seeds.
Oh did I mention the TV show that demonstrated this phenomenon was Gilligan’s Island?
All packages would have a US flag on it so the innocent people of NK will know that we are the good guys and their government is failing. Next time the nuts in NK government start their saber-rattling, the people of NK will see it for what it is.
Famine in North Korea is NOT news, it is the status quo.
Now, if there were signs that there was NOT a famine in North Korea, THAT would be news.
Just because communism has produced authoritarian oppressive regimes with national poverty the first 30 times, does not mean it won't produce the leftist euphoria on the 31st effort.
I like it. I would include handguns in the care package though.
This becomes our direct problem (as long as we keep troops in NK) when China decreases food subsidies. This may become necessary to the PRC as they begin to see recessionary conditions next year. Or if the Chinese have particular ambitions that include harm to the US, they would cut off a majority of all food and fuel subsidies to NK.
Kim Jong-ill has already demonstrated he will proliferate nuclear materials for cash. At a point, he will either have a choice of attacking South Korea or face revolt from a huge military he can no longer feed. I do not see the value of keeping our boys stationed on the ground as some kind of speed bump if the North marches South. Modern sattelite and aviation aircraft would notice in a microsecond if the North started marching South. To me, better to pull troops out and re-remind Kim that B2’s can annihalate his country with a mere phone call.
At some point won’t North Korea just run out of people? They have a famine every other year, and I would guess any sane person would not want to bring a child into that hell hole.
At some point, NK will run out of bones. Every time there is a crisis, new remains turn up for repatriation.
Do I detect sarcasm? Oh, ye of little faith! Obama will make it work! The Son of Marx could never fail!
Anyone caught touching such a package would immediately be killed or sent to a starvation labor camp. The altruism would be murderous, not to mention expensive considering the concentrated anti-aircraft artillery and missiles that would be used to the max.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.