The recent sinking of a South Korean vessel in suspicious circumstances makes this report quite timely. The situation in North Korea
A people who are dying of starvation do not do rebellion very well so that part will simply be awful.
The big question is who will prop up the regime? I think that no one is prepared to do so. This could mean that North Korea
It is also long obvious that their war making ability is massively degraded and would falter for a mere lack of calories in any sort of confrontation.
I also suspect China North Korea by South Korea
I do not know what is going to trigger regime change but it is eminent and I think it is no longer avoidable. This sudden sinking may put the military imitative in South Korea
Maybe China should announce that they are thinking of invading North Korea North Korea
Everyone knows that South Korea wants to fund the recovery of North Korea China
North Koreans fear the country is on the verge of a new famine
March 20, 2010
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00699/news_korea_699322a.jpg
Farmers work the land near the Chinese border, but agricultural output is low, leading to growing food shortages and malnutrition
Jane Macartney, Tumen
Once again, rice has disappeared from tables in North Korea
Desperation is stamped on the faces of those few who have braved barbed-wire fences, armed guards and patrols to slip into neighbouring China
The Times met four women in a safe house in China North Korea
While snow falls outside, Choi Kum Ok squats on the floor of an anonymous apartment not far from the border. Her eyes fill with tears as she talks of the son she had to leave behind. “I came over to earn money for his medical care. I need to get him food or he will starve.”
She covers her face and sobs as she remembers the 1990s, when harvests failed and up to 10 per cent of the population starved. She lost a sibling. “I don’t want to talk about it,” she says.
A former security guard and member of the elite ruling Workers' Party, she cannot understand how the leaders that she still worships could have failed their people so completely.
The flow of refugees from North Korea has slowed to a trickle in recent years, as Pyongyang has issued shoot-to-kill orders to guards, and China Beijing
The few who have made the dangerous journey live in constant fear of discovery. Most plan to spend a few weeks or months in China South Korea
They risked the crossing to survive the famine they believe is now imminent. The crisis they face now is the “barley hump”, or the barren period around April when rice stocks run out and barley has yet to be harvested. One said: “This is the most dangerous period. This is when I’m afraid we will start to see people begin to starve.”
Some are already dying from malnutrition, the women said. Food had been available, if not plentiful, since the Government relaxed the ban on free markets after the 1990s famine.
In late November, however, the Government abolished old banknotes and introduced a new currency at the rate of 100 old won to one new. The maximum people could change was 100,000 won. Private savings, such as they were, were wiped out. The North Korean minister held responsible for the reform was executed by firing squad last week.
Mrs Choi said: “I heard about the currency decision at midday. So we had only until the banks closed about five hours later to change our money. A lot of people lost everything.”
Food disappeared overnight as the black markets closed. Traders had no incentive to sell now-worthless products; better to hoard their rice and oil for the times of need they knew lay ahead. Venting their frustrations, many people with savings threw them away.
Song Hee, a round-faced 16-year-old, said: “Some tossed the money into the river. I even heard one man burnt his notes. The money has the face of Kim Il Sung on it, so it’s like you’re burning the Great Leader — and that’s a crime. The man was executed. Really, it’s a true story. It happened in Chongjin
True or apocryphal, the rumour reflects an unprecedented sense of dissatisfaction with the leadership of a rogue nuclear power that the West is trying to corral.
In a country where obedience equals survival and where Kim Il Sung, the late Great Leader, and Kim Jong Il, his son and successor, the Dear Leader, are revered as divine, opposition is almost unheard of. The currency reform, however, was deeply unpopular. One woman said: “People complained. It’s not like it was. Everyone has an opinion.”
Such grumbling is voiced only among those who trust one another. Song Hee said: “If people hear you, then you get sent to prison.”
Jeong Hee Ok says she finds it difficult to believe government pledges that reforms will succeed by 2012 — the centennial of the birth of the Great Leader.
“I am able to eat three times a day in China
Li Mi Hee, 56, waded through a freezing river to China, where she cares for an elderly man and makes 500 yuan (£50) a month — the equivalent of 10,000 won.
“My son tells me people are already dying of hunger again," she says. "In the 1990s I would see dead bodies lying in the streets and now this could happen again.”
She sends back anything she can. “I hear from my son. He tells me he has no food. He will starve. I have to do something.”
The World Food Programme says that the food situation is getting more acute. A spokesman said: “With even more food shortages, the situation could deteriorate even further.”
Those who have left are torn between an enduring belief in the omnipotence of their leaders and despair at their poverty and hunger. Jeong Hee Ok was shocked by criticisms of Kim Jong Il in China
Before they left, all had attended political sessions at which they learnt that Kim Jong Il was to have a successor: his 26-year-old son, Kim Jong Un. Jeong Hee Ok said: “He is very young, not even 30, and very intelligent. We are happy because he will bring new ideas.”
To celebrate the birthday of the heir-apparent, extra food rations were distributed on January 18 — even rice and a little oil. Jeong Hee Ok plans to slip back after making money to pay for her daughter’s wedding.
“My country is good. Here in China
Mrs Choi says everyone she knows believes in the leadership. But then her eyes slide away. “They believe because they don’t know what it’s like outside. No one tells them. The younger people know more.”
Li Mi Hee is the least afraid, perhaps because her eldest son died in a labour camp. “China China
"We can’t eat, but we know people outside can. In China
Unlike the other women, who whispered, Mrs Li raises her voice with confidence. “All North Koreans know that even during the Japanese occupation they didn’t live in such terrible conditions.” She pauses. “My son thinks something might happen.” And then she gives voice to thoughts that mean she can never return. “I don’t believe any more. The general [Kim Jung Il] is doing a bad job and people want change. Why will the son do better?”
Timeline
1995 State food distribution collapses after flooding and a cut in Soviet aid. Famine kills three million people; more than one tenth of the population, according to the Government’s own estimates
2002 Regime allows small-scale private farming, and permits “farmers’ markets” to sell wider range of goods. UN says one third of population is malnourished
2005 Centralised food rationing is reinstated and private sale of grain forbidden. The Government bans most international humanitarian operations
2007 Severe summer flooding makes chronic food shortages worse. Government appeals for foreign aid
2008 The US donates 500,000 tonnes of food through the World Food Programme but Government rejects aid from South Korea
2009 Economy is thought to have grown thanks to better weather and foreign assistance, but more sanctions come into force. Government rejects US
2010 Regime accepts 10,000 tonnes of corn from South Korea
Sources: International Crisis Group; CIA World Factbook
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