Food shortage in North Korea
...ss national product by the late 1980s was less than one-six that of South Korea” (Paulnolls window on the world 7). Many people were starting to starve after the economic depression, and according to the Korean Internet news, www.dapis.go.kr, after 1992, despite the average usage amount of 480,000 tons of crops, they only harvested about 350,000 tons. Therefore the Korean Internet news is stating that they have no other solution to avoid famine except donation from other countries. As the death of the first leader of North Korea in the year of 1995, the economy was meeting the worst depression they ever had. For the past five years, 3 million people had died from starvation, and 70,000 children are severely malnourished (Dapis 2, UN 1). An article from Christianity Today magazine says, there are over 300,000 North Korean citizens who have fled their country and its brutal communist dictatorship, despite the 100,000 political prisoners who had been captured while trying, and will receive the death penalty. Eventually, 60 percent of North Koreans’ food intake became twigs, leaves, and bark; the remaining 40 percent being grains. Thus, the present leader, Jong-il Kim, accepted and stated the food shortage in North Korea, and called for help from other countries. All articles researched included a similar point: that the famine in North Korea is caused by mismanagement of the government and failure of communism. Even though many other countries including South Korea and Japan were donating food every year, North Korea was still suffering a food shortage. In fact, other countries thought they had sent sufficient food, and were getting suspicious as to why North Korea was still having food shortages, according to articles in a large South Korean newspaper, Chosun Korean Times. Recently, shocking information was revealed about present leader, Jong-il Kim, who stated that he would not let the military starve even tough 80 percent of his citizen die from hunger, because he is so concerned about having a strong army to ...