It looks like North Korea is headed for another famine:
TOKYO, April 16 — Food-starved North Korea is facing a humanitarian crisis this year and will likely need large food donations from the international community, the U.N. World Food Program said Wednesday.
“Major sources of food for North Korea are all going down and there is no very good prospect that any will go up soon,” said Tony Banbury, the regional director in Asia for the WFP.
This year’s food shortfall is projected to be 1.66 million metric tons, about double the need of last year and the highest since 2001, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.
The fast-worsening food situation in the closed-off Communist country — where staple food prices have doubled in the past year — is the result of what U.N. officials describe as a pernicious confluence of flood-damaged local harvests, soaring world food prices and an unexpectedly sharp drop in aid from neighboring South Korea and China.
No, it’s the result of the completely and utter failure of North Korea’s economic system.
April 16th, 2008 at 9:34 am
There are some interesting videos that someone made in North Korea recently. Search through the Ace blog (ace.mu.nu) and you will find a link to them. I think it’s a 14-part series. Yes, the country is pathetic, and the video shows some of the real anomalies in the place.