Long after the problem of starvation in North Korea was evident, “North Korea has acknowledged for the first time that children in the country are dying of malnutrition…”4 The evidence of a famine was prominent in the land. People were, “eating grass, weeds and bark; orphans whose growth has been stunted by hunger and diarrhea; people going bald for lack of nutrients; and hospitals running short of medicine and fuel.”5
The communist government has caused many social and technological advances stand to a halt. The governing philosophy of juche is, “a neo-Confucian permutation of Marxism demanding radical self-sufficiency.”6 North Korea was known to be the “Hermit Kingdom,” it did not want to ask for help from the outside world at the time in 1994. The North Korean country has no outlet for people to speak out. There is no democratic system in North Korea, where a free press could forewarn an impending disaster.7
North Korea depended heavily on Soviet and Chinese subsidies. A tight form of trade between North Korea, Soviet Union, and the Chinese government helped the communist economy. In the 1980s, North Korean food production started to decline very sharply and Soviet and Chinese subsidies made up for the deficits.8 The dependency of the Soviet and Chinese oil for the lack of the North Korean petroleum resources had a double harsh impact on the country. When the greater Soviet economic system collapsed in 1990-91, the North Koreans lost their food and oil supplies simultaneously.9 These details of history shows how the famine started quite earlier than 1995 as the North Korean government claims.
The great North Korean famine was caused by the North Korean agricultural and economic policies. In a country that has only 15 to 20 percent of land that is arable, North Korea lacks capability of feeding its own people without importing food. North Korea once maintained itself sufficiently because of a small sized population. After rapid industrialization in the 1960s and 70s the population grew with the help of Soviet and Chinese subsidies. After the economic collapse in the 1990s, North Korea was in for an inevitable long-term famine. The economic collapse affected the industrial capacity of the country in a very negative way. North Korea had no resources to export products or the money to buy the food. Although famine could be avoided in an industrialized society by exporting products and importing the food, it cannot produce itself, North Korea’s economy is agragarian based. With the knowledge of the limited amount of tillable land in North Korea the future for it’s poor population seems destitute.10
Endnotes
1. Andrew S. Nastios. The Great North Korean Famine. (Washington, D.C.: United State Institute of Peace Press, 2001), ix-x.
2. ibid., 5.
- ibid., 5.
-
John Lewis. “Scores of children dead in North Korea famine.” CNN interactive. (1997). Google. <http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9704/08/korea.food/> (8 February 2004).
- ibid., 2.
-
Andrew S. Nastios. The Great North Korean Famine. (Washington, D.C.: United State Institute of Peace Press, 2001), 6.
- ibid., 7.
- ibid., 10.
- ibid., 11.
- ibid., 12.
Bibliography
Eberhart, Dave. “U.S. Insists Starvation Not a Tool to Manage N. Korea.” News Max.com, (2003), Google. (8 February 2004).
French, Howard W. “Diplomatic Problems Stall Japanese Food Aid to North Korea.”
New York Times. (2002), Google. (17 May 2002).
Johnson, Tim. “U.N. food for N. Korea about to run out.” Honolulu Advertiser,
21 December 2003, A16.
Natsios, Andrew S. The Great North Korean Famine. Washington, D.C.: United States Institute of Peace Press, 2001.
Lewis, John. “Scores of children dead in North Korea famine.” CNN interactive. (1997). Google. <http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9704/08/korea.food/> (8 February 2004).
Woo, David. “North Korea-Starvation Stalks a Wasted Land.” Insight On The News. (1998). Google. <http://www.insightmag.com/news/1998/06/World/>
