June 2, 2005: Starvation has the North Korean government very scared. More urban dwellers are now being sent to the countryside to help out with farming. It's a normal practice for communist nations to send people from the cities to the countryside to help with the planting and harvesting of crops.
| This follows from the normal practice of Communist leaders to starve their people into submission. |
But this year, an even greater number of "volunteers" are being sent, apparently every physically able adult except for those caring for young children, those who are members of the security forces, or "essential" members of the government.
The Politburo members are, unfortunately, indispensible and can't cut sugar cane harvest crops. |
Some 70 percent (15 million) of the population lives in cities. It appears that over twenty percent of the urban population is being sent off to do agricultural work.
Only 18 percent of the land in mountainous North Korea is fit for farming. In the last few years it's been noticed that, where possible, urban inhabitants are growing food on any available land.
| "We're growing food on top of Uncle Kim's head. He don't mind, really." |
Since 2003, the government has legalized black markets for food. Currently, it costs about 30 percent of the average monthly wage to buy a pound of rice at those markets. The government only provides about nine ounces of grain per person a day, at subsidized (affordable) prices. That's less than a thousand calories. For the average North Korean, that's a starvation diet. South Koreans who can travel to North Korea have noticed the children are smaller than in the south, and the young men entering the army in the last few years are noticeably smaller than those of the previous generation.
The famine began in the early 1990s, when the end of the Cold War brought an end to socialist fraternalization food imports from Russia. This was compounded by several years of bad weather, and failed crops, in North Korea. A generation of North Koreans has grown up on short rations.
| Not a word about mismanagement and the effects of state-sponsored terror. |
Many countries have sent food to North Korea, but that has been reduced in the last two years because of North Korea's hostile foreign policy, insistence on going forward with its ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programs and evidence that much of the food aid was being diverted to the military, or the black market.
| Light bulb is just beginning to blink on. You mean Communist governments don't care about their people? |
North Korea has tried to open up its economy, but most available resources have gone to industry, not agriculture. This year, however, the government has said it is increasing investment in agriculture by 29 percent. North Korea's GDP increased 1.8 percent in 2003 and 2.2 percent last year.
| Doesn't anyone remember how the Soviets lied through their teeth about GDP growth? And how gullible American politicans and economists bought the lies? Oh, the powerful Soviet Union and its mighty economic engine. Feh. The Norks are trying to pull the same trick here. GDP growth? Really? Why's everyone starving then? |
But without more food, this growth will come to a halt. North Korea has been trying to trade a reduction in its weapons programs for more food and economic aid from its neighbors, and the United States. But the north is playing hardball and hard to get. The north wants a lot, probably more than the potential donors are willing to give.
In the end, do we really need an agreemment with the Norks? I think that's what the Bush admin is getting at here. We're doing the dog-and-pony show with the Norks because the South, the Japanese, Russians, Chinese, UN, MSM, etc. all expect us to 'negotiate in good faith' and all that balderdash. But we don't need the Norks to cork the nuclear genie. Build 10, build 100 bombs. Go ahead. But use ONE, ever, at any time, and you're all dead.
Now, about food: you guys say you're hungry, eh ... |
The communist government is also worried about maintaining public order. In the last decade, over a million North Koreans have risked prison or execution to flee to China. The government is concerned that, instead of trying to flee, the population will simply turn on the government, as happened in Eastern Europe in the late 1980s. If such a revolution comes, it won't be difficult for the people to pick out those who belong to the government leadership. They are the ones who look well fed.
| And we ought to find ways to nudge the people into doing just that. |
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