North Korea food shortage turns into new Asia humanitarian crisis

[brooklynite]

Source: Nikki Asia

North Korea's food shortages have reached crisis levels, and inequalities have sharply widened ever since the COVID-19 pandemic forced the country to close its borders in January last year.

The reclusive nation will be short by about 860,000 tons of food this year, or about two months of normal demand, the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization estimated in a recent report.

The government has been trying to get the population to supply their own food but with little success. News agencies with sources inside the country are reporting starvation deaths as well as an increase in the number of children and elderly who have resorted to begging.

Jiro Ishimaru of AsiaPress said North Korea's current food shortage is quickly shaping up to be the worst humanitarian crisis in Asia. In a column earlier this month, he said it was "frustrating that the reality of the situation has not been conveyed to the world."

Read more: https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/N-Korea-at-crossroads/North-Korea-food-shortage-turns-into-new-Asia-humanitarian-crisis

[dalton99a]

1. They might turn to Kim Jong-un as a food source

[Hoyt]

3. OK, that made me laugh. I feel bad.

[BigmanPigman]

6. He's lost a ton of weight

so he won't be able to feed as many as before. I wonder if he got Covid and that's why he lost a lot.

[Cronezilla]

14. I suspect..

... that Kim had some form of weight-loss surgery. Remember when he disappeared from the public
eye for several weeks a while ago? He may have had the procedure then and had to spend a few
weeks in recovery at hospital, then at-home bed rest, before being able to return to his regular
activities. It's just about the right amount of time for him to have lost the weight that he has already.

I also suspect that WLS was offered as a solution to some emerging, weight-related, cardiac or vascular
health issues rather than out of Kim just wanting to improve his appearance. Even though he is relatively
young, at 280lbs+, he could have already had a heart attack, DVT or stroke. A case of Covid would
have likely put him into the ICU or even killed him.

It's still tragic that the people of North Korea are starving because of this mans selfish incompetence as a
leader. Time for Kim to put aside his pride and accept the world's help to save his people.

[Hoyt]

2. I'm for helping them if possible.

[questionseverything]

7. We need to kill wild hogs, send the 🍖

Let chef cook it up

It’s wether kim would let us help

[JoeOtterbein]

4. Children and other vulnerable people...

...always suffer first, and the most, from starvation.

Horrible.

[Worried2020]

5. Forget all the political shit - think humanitarian

.

Just like in North America, most of the people have nothing to do with our leaders differences.

They/we just want to live a decent life.

Are we supposed to punish a whole nation because it has poor leadership?

If that is true,

then we're overdue for a spanking . . .

W

[joetheman]

12. I agree, we should be doing more to help the people if possible.

You would think that Dennis and Don who fell in love with Kim would be organizing some kind of food drop. If we didn't already have our hands full with the GOP psychopants Biden could do more humanitarian good for both the people in Cuba and N.K.
At least we should be doing something thru S.Korea.

[NYC Liberal]

17. If we can verify that it's actually going to the people and not those at the top.

[monkeyman1]

8. agreed !

[LuckyLib]

9. My Dad used to see North Korea's military parades on international news and

comment, "They can't even feed their own people but they have money for this." Funny, I say the same thing about the US.

[GB_RN]

10. When Is North Korea NOT In A Food Crisis?

Serious question. Their military sucks up everything and the peasants...excuse me...people fucking starve pretty much all the time, from what I read. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong, but that seems to be kind of a perennial story.

[The Jungle 1]

13. People are hungry and we must help them.

[EX500rider]

15. People are assuming we can help them..

...but in reality N Korea insists on handling aid distribution themselves, meaning most will go to the military and to keep the Party faithful in Pyongyang happy and fed.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

16. Every time we've helped them,

that's exactly what has happened, so I'm kind of on the fence on this.
If NK would allow an international org. distribute the relief, then I would be in favor, but we all know that's not going to happen, the military and elites will gobble up all the food and let the people go on starving.

It's a no win situation.
Why isn't their benefactor, China, sending them the food they need?