The BBC reports that North Korea is unable to feed its people:
The World Food Programme (WFP) has repeated its warning of a food crisis in North Korea and says the situation is getting worse by the day.Unbelievable. Even as Kim Jong-Il threatens America by building nuclear bombs and ICBM delivery systems, he turns to America for help. And America, being the nation that it is, is actually considering helping.
The WFP regional director, Anthony Banbury, said contributions from overseas had all but dried up. He said the organisation was having to cut handouts to some of those most in need.
North Korea has depended on food aid from overseas for the last decade. But major donors have made no new contributions this year and the WFP is warning of disaster if they do not resume shipments.
Mr Banbury said governments had expressed great frustration with North Korea's actions, and the hostile atmosphere was making them reluctant to send more aid.
North Korea declared itself a nuclear weapons state in February, and has refused to return to international talks on its nuclear programme.
The United States says it is also considering food aid but has yet to make a decision.
Perhaps if Kim had created a market economy and promoted modern agricultural techniques, instead of blowing all his cash on weapons programs and Juche propaganda, North Koreans might have something to eat.
FOLLOW-UP:
Steven Den Beste comments:
The difficulty is that with things as bad as they are in NK, food distribution is one of the ways the Kim government maintains control. If people get feisty, the food stops arriving. There's also good reason to believe that the majority of the food shipped to NK from the west ended up being redirected to feed NK's army, rather than reaching the "poor starving women and children" that we always hear about when this comes up. They were starving even when we were shipping in hundreds of thousands of tons of food every year.I had actually read about North Korea diverting food aid to its military before (on Steven's old site, among other places), but neglected to work that fact into my post.
The foreign governments who had been shipping in lots of food to NK finally dropped the hammer and insisted that all food distribution be under international control and monitoring to make sure it went where it was intended to go. But that doesn't suit the Kim government, which refused to agree to those terms. So that's why the food shipments dried up.
The WFP knows all this, but doesn't want to talk about it because it doesn't fit their narrative: "evil, greedy, rich western nations are refusing to help feed starving NK women and children". Actually, the western nations have decided that they're tired of feeding NK's army, and hope that by cutting off the food that they can hasten NK's collapse.
2 comments:
Tell that to the academy of clowns (academia in general, and their wannabes in international journalism).
Why the entire world isn't saying, "Shut this guy down" is beyond my comprehension. One would at least hope that there would be some broad and consistent disdain for the police state Kim Jon Il has erected.
The previously mentioned “academy of clowns” is always slow to rally to the cause of justice when the nation in question has at least tipped their hat to them by eliminating capitalism and free society. The “thinkers” of leftland would rather dwell -- excessively -- upon the horrors of a possible toilet flushing of a holy book that’s currently being used to inspire random killing of that same book's religious followers.
Although North Korea is clearly part of an "Axis" of something ridiculous, someone needs to tell China to get their act in gear as well, really join the modern world, and take the right side between civilized economy and government vs. their own "old-time" religion (the socialist authoritarian dream).
A firm, "no more support, no more sympathy, and no more aid to the troll of Pyong Yang, by both the U.S. and China, would go a long way in waking Kim Jong Il from that over-extended vacation he's been having in his own warped head.
Posted by Cliff
The situation with respect to food aid to North Korea is more complicated than you think. Kim's government insists that the government have sole control over distribution of the food sent into the nation. And this is not a new situation: NK has been unable to feed its population for more than 15 years.
The difficulty is that with things as bad as they are in NK, food distribution is one of the ways the Kim government maintains control. If people get feisty, the food stops arriving. There's also good reason to believe that the majority of the food shipped to NK from the west ended up being redirected to feed NK's army, rather than reaching the "poor starving women and children" that we always hear about when this comes up. They were starving even when we were shipping in hundreds of thousands of tons of food every year.
The foreign governments who had been shipping in lots of food to NK finally dropped the hammer and insisted that all food distribution be under international control and monitoring to make sure it went where it was intended to go. But that doesn't suit the Kim government, which refused to agree to those terms. So that's why the food shipments dried up.
The WFP knows all this, but doesn't want to talk about it because it doesn't fit their narrative: "evil, greedy, rich western nations are refusing to help feed starving NK women and children". Actually, the western nations have decided that they're tired of feeding NK's army, and hope that by cutting off the food that they can hasten NK's collapse.
The western nations would be quite happy to resume food shipments IF AND ONLY IF they could be sure the food was reaching the people it was supposed to be reaching. That's exactly what the Kim government doesn't want. So who's at fault here, really?
Posted by Steven Den Beste
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