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| Korea |
| KOREA: Starvation and Surliness Scares the Security Establishment |
| 2004-01-21 |
| Strategy Page The food and fuel situation up north is pretty grim, and it’s making the security forces up there nervous. Lots more North Koreans are openly expressing an "I don’t give a damn" attitude. Just like Eastern Europe in 1989. If people in the most psychotically repressive country on earth are openly dissenting from the Cult of Kimness, that’s a bad sign for the current regime. The current food crises is a result of foreign donors refusing to contribute food for North Korea because the government has not allowed foreigners to observe where the donated food goes. Other witnesses have consistently reported that the donated food goes to the armed forces and is not sent to areas where there has been unrest, or where the government suspects there might be unrest (because a number of locals have fled to China or Russia.) [span class=sarcasam]Would Jimmy Carter and Madeline Albright’s friends actually do such a thing.[/span] Currently, some twelve percent of North Korea’s population, that was getting food aid, has been cut off. New supplies will not arrive for several months. But after that, the food aid could dry up again if the North Korean government does not become more cooperative. The government is showing signs of easing up on building nuclear weapons and controlling foreign aid. But signs are not the same as a done deal, so the people still starve. Faster, please. |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #4 Much of the credit for this goes to the PRC. If they had wanted to prop Kimmie up, he would be propped. |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2004-1-21 12:41:21 PM |
| #3 Squeeze Kimmy harder. Something's got to give sooner or later. |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2004-1-21 12:32:54 PM |
| #2 BBC also has US expert doubts N Korean bombs and Newsday has Most Asian Nations Welcome Bush's Speech. I haven't yet read the BBC article. The Newsday article can be summarized with the observation - Asians views on Bush speech directly correlate to whether the listeners recent exposure to sensless acts of brutality. Obviously, this simple observation explains the diffence between opinions of the Iraq War between Poland and France. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2004-1-21 11:47:38 AM |
| #1 The Norks remove nation-of-origin labels from donated food. The downside to this is, when the food doesn't show up you can't spin it to look like someone else is to blame. |
| Posted by: BH 2004-1-21 11:33:42 AM |