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China-Japan-Koreas
At the Heart of North Korea's Troubles, an Intractable Hunger Crisis
2009-03-10
Superb article from WaPo that is excellent background reading for the Nork crisis. Really.
SEOUL -- Behind the long-range missile it is preparing to launch and the stockpile of plutonium it claims to have "weaponized," North Korea has an embarrassing and insoluble weakness.

Under the leadership of Kim Jong Il, the country cannot feed its people. Perennially dependent on food aid, North Korea has become a truculent ward of the wealthy countries it threatens. It is the world's first nuclear-armed, missile-wielding beggar -- a particularly intricate challenge for the Obama administration as it begins to formulate a foreign policy.

The "eating problem," as it is often called in North Korea, has eroded Kim's authority, damaged a decade of improved relations between the two Koreas and stunted the bodies and minds of millions of North Koreans. Teenage boys fleeing the North in the past decade are on average five inches shorter and weigh 25 pounds less than boys growing up in the South, according to measurements taken at a settlement center for defectors in South Korea.
Posted by:Steve White

#10  See! Socialism Works!

You beat me to it, Bambi. I was going to tell Kim not to worry. With Obama in the White House, soon we will be the ones eating bark off trees.
Posted by: Frozen Al   2009-03-10 11:32  

#9  I am beginning to think too-big-to-fail financial institutions like AIG have been studying Comrade Kim's famous book Seven Habits of Successful Extortionists “Give me rice bailouts or IÂ’ll blow you all up destroy your economy.”
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418    2009-03-10 09:19  

#8  Actually, here lately the soldiers have been getting less food. That's in the article. The private markets that are being tolerated means that at least some civilians, at least those in larger cities, now get more food than soldiers. That isn't going to go over well.
Posted by: Steve White   2009-03-10 08:04  

#7  Oh, there's food in North Korea all right - the soldiers get plenty of it. The people don't get any, and they suffer.
Posted by: gromky   2009-03-10 06:21  

#6  Maybe instead of a live fire exercise, they should have one humongous barbecue. Just on our side of the DMZ where the guards will be sure to see it. And do it when there is a South wind so it carries the smell of steak and pork and chicken grilling across the border. That would probably be more effective any anything else we could do.

Posted by: crosspatch   2009-03-10 01:40  

#5  And exactly how long would they be able to field a combat force? You have emaciated soldiers with little food trying to fight a 24hr a day war?

I don't think there is any "there" there.
Posted by: Ebbusoter Tojo7688   2009-03-10 01:21  

#4  See! Socialism Works!
Posted by: Bambi   2009-03-10 00:50  

#3  WORLD MILITARY FORUM [GOOGLE Chinglish translation] > IIUC RUSSIA HAS LOST 35% OF ITS RESERVES - CHINA TO SAVE RUSSIA/RUSS FAR EAST CANNOT SURVIVE WITHOUT CHINA.
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2009-03-10 00:46  

#2  Hunger is a symptom. A Stalinist dictatorship is at the heart of the North Koreans' problems.
Posted by: ed   2009-03-10 00:40  

#1  RUSSIA TODAY > IIRC HUGO CHAVEZ: VENEZUELA READY FOR WAR WITH COLUMBIA; + TOPIX > WALID PHARES: CROSSING OF "RED LINES" BY IRAN MAY TRIGGER ISRAELI SURPRISE AIR ATTACKS [agz Iran's Nucfacs].

D *** NG IT, cleary its the COMBO MEAL!
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2009-03-10 00:38  

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