The United Nations is once again appealing for hundreds of millions of dollars to avert famine in North Korea, where it estimates millions of people risk starvation if aid donations to the Communist state don’t increase dramatically.
U.S. congressman Tony Hall recently visited North Korea and reported that food production was down by almost half over last year’s already poor harvest. The North Korean government blames the ongoing famine on drought and other natural conditions, but the main cause of the 6-year long famine that has claimed up to 2 million lives is the closed, totalitarian state.
North Korea’s government is extraordinarily xenophobic and rarely lets any foreigners venture outside of its capitol of Pyongyang — which is one of the reasons some countries are reticent about donating aid since they often aren’t given the ability to track how such aid is used.
Hall, who was allowed to venture into rural areas of North Korea, reports that in many parts of the country that he visited hospitals were in such poor condition that, “Electricity ran for no more than two hours a day, and patients were fed less than half the food a human being needs to survive.” According to Hall, many North Koreans have turned to “alternative foods” made from 40 percent grain and 60 percent twigs, leaves and barks. Such pseudo-foods are a common feature of any famine area, but in the end usually do far more harm to starving people than good.
Unfortunately barring some sort of dramatic coup or fall of the North Korean government, life for those within the Communist state is unlikely to improve as the government has proven able to main tight military and political control over its territory even in the midst of very high death rates from famine.
Sources:
N. Koreans eating twigs. The BBC, November 29, 2000.
North Korea’s lost generation. The BBC, November 29, 2000.