 | Grass not as green over there? |
SEOUL (AFP) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il has called for a "decisive turning-point" this year in ending the country's long-running food shortage, state media said Monday. The ruling communist party's daily Rodong Sinmun described solving the problem as the nation's most pressing task.
| If you can't eat, not much else matters ... |
In comments marking the start of the rice-planting season, Kim demanded an all-out campaign this year "to bring about a renovation in cereal production and to make a decisive turning-point in solving the food problem," it said.
| So make even more promises you can't keep, Kimmie. It's nothing that a bunch of commie thugs running a dictatorship with an imposed, creaky, massive bureaucracy and a nasty secret police can't handle ... |
South Korea's unification ministry said in February that the North's food production would fall more than one million tons short of demand this year.
The North suffered famine in the 1990s which killed hundreds of thousands. Poor weather was blamed but analysts said the inefficient command economy also played a large part.
| 'inefficient' means 'communist', apparently ... |
Since then it has relied on overseas aid to feed millions of its people. However North Korea in March refused to accept further food aid from the United States.
Another key provider, South Korea, last year did not make its customary shipment of hundreds of thousands of tons of rice and fertiliser because the North failed to request the deliveries. |