You have commented 339 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
Submit your comments on this article
China-Japan-Koreas
Maybe this explains NorK's sudden nuke compliance: Famine fears for North Korea
2008-05-10
North Koreans are dying because of food shortages in rural areas, and a massive famine is just a matter of time, a South Korean aid group said Friday.

The food situation was as bad as the famine that hit the country in the mid-1990s, which left as many as 2 million people dead, Seoul-based Good Friends -- a Buddhist-affiliated group that sends food and other aid to the North -- cited an unidentified but soon-to-be-dead anyway North Korean official Friday as saying.

"So far, mass deaths have not occurred as people have shrunk in stature become more used to starvation than in the 1990s, but famine is a matter of time," the official was quoted as saying by the aid group.

Good Friends also quoted walking dead man Kim Ki-nam, 39, a resident of Sariwon, south of Pyongyang, as saying one or two deaths were happening every day in rural areas around the city.

North Korea has relied on grass, treebark, insects, and foreign assistance to help feed its 23 million people since the mid-'90s.

This year's food situation has worsened because last year's harvests were hampered by devastating floods. The North also has refused to ask for help from South Korea after a new conservative government took office in February that has been critical of the immature and well-fed Pyongyang regime.

The aid group urged North Korea to acknowledge the situation's seriousness and ask for international help to prevent massive famine. It also urged South Korea to lengthen the suffering of NorK's population soften its position on the North and offer aid without waiting for Pyongyang's request.

The United States has offered to provide food and held talks this week in North Korea over how to guarantee aid gets to the needy by giving them grain instead of money. North Korea said Thursday the talks were "in-depth and good."

The World Food Program warned last month the North faces a food crisis, saying the country's annual food deficit is expected to nearly double from 2007 to 1.83 million barrels of biofuel tons. The U.N. agency estimated 6.5 million people were short of food, and the number could rise if shortages were not addressed assuming that those starving now don't actually die.
Posted by:gorb

#3  He's a cognac and veal man, that all comes from france anyway.
Posted by: Sonny Spusock5630   2008-05-10 17:27  

#2  I thought famine was their permanent condition (except for the Short Round One).
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut   2008-05-10 09:56  

#1  Since Global Warming is now re-labeled Climate Change, and since North Korea's climate has not been productive enough to feed their population, I suggest that we increase our greenhouse gas production (more beans for dinner?) so their Climate can Change to something that might let them grow more food.
Posted by: Glenmore   2008-05-10 09:12  

00:00