Posted on 03/25/2008 2:24:40 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
'Huge Food Shortage In North Korea'
By Sky News
SkyNews - Thursday, March 20 03:18 pmA dire food shortage across North Korea has become so acute it has started to affect the country's elite in the capital, Pyongyang, reports say.
Aid agency Good Friends says food rations for some parts of the city have been cut by up to 60%, while others have seen their supplies cut off completely.
Only citizens who show absolute loyalty to leader Kim Jong Il and his regime are allowed to live in Pyongyang and are considered better off than their fellow countrymen.
But the food situation, which has mostly been felt in rural areas where rations have been suspended since November, has now spread to the city, according to the South Korean aid agency.
"Even ranking officials have run out of their (rationed) food supply, while a ban on (private) trade is strictly maintained," said an unidentified city official quoted by Good Friends.
"It is nothing but a death sentence."
The agency also said farm labourers were staying away from work because they were not getting any food. This was said to be affecting the planting of new crops.
South Korea's Hyundai Economic Research Institute has warned that the rising international cost of grain would impact further on the north's desperate situation.
A famine gripped North Korea during the 1990s, reportedly killing up to two million people. Since then, the country has accepted food aid to feed the population.
But South Korea's new conservative government has signalled it would stop providing unconditional aid to the north.
However, the US government this week sent an humanitarian expert to Seoul to discuss North Korea's food situation.
Last month, the UN's World Food Programme reported that close to a quarter of North Korea's 23 million people are affected by a lack of food.
What a sad picture. That says it all!
All due respect Tiger that news?
Whenever I read one of these stories I always think of MASH, and the pomposity of Alan Alda. Everyone on that show was so SURE Korea would be wonderful if the Americans just left. Check out S. Korea. Check out N. Korea.
Talk about the law of Unintended Consequences. Imagine a bio-diesel initiative sparking a second Korean War.
oops ... sorry ... not bio-diesel ... ehtanol.
And how are the nuclear negotiations going? In the meantime, let the bastards starve.
Let them eat missiles.
IMO,a much more effective mover would be to transmit TV and radio signals from *South* Korea to ordinary North Koreans.As "Michael81Dus" (a German) knows from personal experience the fact that many ordinary East Germans were able to listen to/watch West German radio and TV played a *huge* role in the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Seeing how South Koreans live day to day (through TV and radio broadcasts) would be far more powerful for their North Korean cousins to see than any photos from this country would be.
You´re right GSC - and pictures are better than radio. Problem is, that maybe just 10% of N Koreans have TV access. And power must be for rich only, as we can see that there are no lights on at night. The people of N Korea is too weak to stand up against their prison-guards. And we can hardly do a thing as long as China supports that - and does almost the same in Tibet.
Tibet, Myanmar (formerly Birma), N Korea - when will freedom prevail?
“What should we do with our mountains of surplus crops?
I say, burn ‘em.
What do you say?”
And just let the hungry people die?
What do you say?
“What do you say?”
I say stop lying to the people about global warming and start drilling for oil on our own land and ship the corn to the areas that need them.
I generally agree with you, with the exception that ship should be changed to sell.
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