Message from North Korea (Mass suicides in N. Korea; even army is starving)

The Chosun Journal ^ | 14 April 2003 | Moon Kook-Han via Sin-U Nam via others

[dufekin]

I received an e-mail from Mr. Moon Kook-Han this morning. He sent two Korean-Chinese to North Korea last week to deliver some food urgently needed. He could not do it for a while because he ran out of money. What those two Korean-Chinese reported back to Mr. Moon after they came back from North Korea is much much worse than we feared. It is worse than 1996 or 1997. I translate his message written on April 14th at 10 P.M.(Korean time):

Dear Mr. Nam: I just talked to the sister helper who visited North Korea recently. She has been going back and forth to North Korea since 1996, and she knows the North Korean situation very well. She is a very strong person, and she cries very seldom. I got to know her in 1997, and worked with her to deliver food to North Korea in 1997 and 1998. She told me the following:

No food dispensation even on Kim Il-Sung birthday (April 15th): We heard that the food situation in North Korea has been very bad. However, North Korean government used to give out some food every year on around April 15th to the people to celebrate the father dictator Kim Il-Sung birthday. There has been no food dispensation this year, not even 1 kg of food. This must be the worst ever even in North Korea.

Mass suicide in many villages: Starving near to death for the past several years and with no hope for the future, many families kill themselves now by taking rat poison. There had been incidents of this kind before, but mass suicide has become more frequent and wide spread now. The City of B where the aid worker visited this time was rather better off than the other areas because it is located near the border. Even the City of B experiences the worst food shortage these days.

The Army is looting the civilian residences: The Army, if they know that there are some valuables or food in a residence, break into the house and rob anything of value. The supporter eyewitnessed a robbery by the Army when she was in the village. They came and took the only bicycle from a house. They were all armed, and the residents could not even protest. There is no law in North Korea now. The Army can rob civilians in broad daylight and when people are watching them. The Army must be starving too. Recently, a soldier was starving in the Army. His family paid off some officers and got him discharged. He had nothing to eat at home either. He ran away.

The situation is worse than 1997 which was considered the worst year ever: The aid worker went to a railroad station. There was a pile of burnt ashes left over from the train. People fought to get a place in the ashes to keep themselves warm. Their faces looked all black and bloodless from starvation. They could not walk straight. They all said that half the City of B residents would perish this year if they did not get help.

Farmers cannot work on their farm even in this spring: They do not have any seeds to spread in the farm. Nobody is working.

No people in the market: It used to be crowded in the market with people. Nobody has money to buy anything. She did not see any people in the market. The aid worker saw an old lady peddling a bowl of mountain grass roots.

Things are much worse now than 1996-1998 which everybody thought was the worst. It defies description. Nobody can predict what may happen this spring in North Korea. The aid worker in China who reported these stories used to be so strong, but she could not complete her story and hang up the phone, crying.

What can I do? Heaven help them, and us!

Sin-U Nam

[dufekin]

Even the army appears to be starving. Seriously, this probably means a much-degraded military capability. Perhaps the invasion will be a pushover should we decide to undertake it. Then again, I wouldn't cound on anything so good. But with a mass genocide of Holocaustic proportions in progress, why shouldn't we do something to stop it?

[mhking]

(Mass suicides in N. Korea; even army is starving)

Does this mean they're committing suicide at the gates of the DMZ?

[dufekin]

For The Chosun Journal online, go to

http://www.chosunjournal.com/

Bills itself as "North Korea's virtual holocaust museum in real-time."

Time for us to put the real-time part out of business. Millions of people are depending on an end.

[Tijeras_Slim]

Starvation has always been a weapon communists use against their own.

[Cicero]

No telling if this is true, but it's likely enough, given the past history of this sad country and its evil government.

[The Mayor]

Bump for later read

[Cicero]

Starvation has always been a weapon communists use against their own.

Also a weapon their leaders have used against the West. "Help us, our people are starving." Then they take the aid, feed the army and the party, and let the people starve anyway.

[sinkspur]

But with a mass genocide of Holocaustic proportions in progress, why shouldn't we do something to stop it?

Let China stop it. Seems to me the problem is taking care of itself.

[Tijeras_Slim]

And if we don't help, their fellow travellers here cry bloody murder.

[angkor]

Why wouldn't it be true?

This is exactly what happened in Vietnam post-1975, including the army openly stealing whatever and whenever they wanted (including metal detector sweeps of residential floors and walls to look for hidden valuables).

[RightOnline]

Just shows you how stupid the government of N. Korea really is.

They don't seem to understand that countries just don't "make money" for nothing. They need goods, products, services to sell to other nations and within their own borders to generate revenue on which they can, in turn, collect revenues to run their government.

If you starve your population to death........literally.......what will the government produce for sale? How will they make money? How will they buy food for even themselves?

Never forget: the first task of any bureaucracy.......ANY bureaucracy........is to protect itself.

These N. Korean morons can't even do that right.

[Teetop]

Hopefully, someone in the military will hold a coup to overthrow Mr. Chia pet. (One can hope)

Sad for the people to suffer, but like others have said, they use food as a tool against their people. Mr. Chia pet has no problems funding his weapons programs...

[Cvengr]

Nobody tell Susan Sarandon or Tim Robbins.

More proof for them that that "Socialized-everything" is so much better than the evil free-market enterprise.

/sarcasm off.

[latrans]

What a selfless and generous act; to commit suicide so that
others may consume you.

[observer5]

Let these G** damn communist implode like Reagan did.

DON'T HELP THEM!!!!! Let this scurge die out.

[RS]

"But with a mass genocide of Holocaustic proportions in progress, why shouldn't we do something to stop it?"
Pres. Bush IS doing something to stop it - unlike his predecessor, he is not buckling under the blackmail desires of NK.
Sooner than you think, Kim Jong Il will make a deal and run for the south of France. The South will then step in to re-build the former North faster then the world would have thought possible.

Remember, Kim Jong Il is not a religious fanatic, he is simply a ruthless businessman. He would have no quams about holding a gun to his own people's heads if he thought that would make us give in - but there would be no gain if he actually used it.
He knows how to work the media - feeding fanatical reports through that "unofficial" spokesman" in Japan ( since it is unofficial they can lie or threaten all they want )
I would not be surprised if reports like this have been orchestrated by his intelligence people.

[joesnuffy]

If this were true why not a mass exodus to the south to get food.....starving people will risk anything to feed their children

[headsonpikes]

Is anyone surprised?

What do people really expect from Socialism?

Each miserable commie regime is worse than the one before.

There is a kind of willful blindness amongst the Left.

A malicious ignorance, so to speak.

[LoneRangerMassachusetts]

ruthless businessman

To call a ruthless despot a ruthless businessman is much like saying sometimes is means is not.

[RS]

"If this were true why not a mass exodus to the south to get food.....starving people will risk anything to feed their children"

Good Point - and I wish someone could explain to me how people can "starve" for 5 years and still be alive ?

Bringing in a load of food every year or so feeds the people for a day - kind of like Thanksgiving dinner at a homeless shelter - How are they surviving the rest of the year ?
Are there thousands of tons of food coming in by train and boat EVERY DAY, being transported over deteriorating infrastructure with limited fuel to feed these millions of people ?
When the collapse comes, the true picture may be surprisingly different.