| Prayer Groups | News | Resources | Interact |  |
|
|||||
|
|
Perhaps
the greatest human catastrophe of our generation has claimed more lives than
the famines in Ethiopia and Somalia combined, yet many are unaware of this ongoing
disaster.
An estimated 2-5 million people (out of 22 million) have died in a devastating famine in North Korea since it began in the mid-1990s. North Korean refugees we talked to said that at the height of the famine in 1997, there weren't enough coffins for all the dead. Trucks drove through the villages every morning to pick up scores of dead bodies on the streets. People ate grass and stripped off bark from trees for food. Children were going blind because of malnutrition. And perhaps most disturbing, every refugee we talked to had stories of people eating others in their villages.
Why haven't we more heard about it? North Korea is the most reclusive country in the world, restricting and distorting information about this tragedy. The world has relied on reports leaking out of North Korea through refugees in northern China. In this part of the NK Investigative Report, we look at the extent and causes of the famine.
An In-Depth Look
The North Korean government hasn't released official numbers, but the estimated number of citizens who have died of starvation since 1995 is staggering. Research from independent groups places the death toll at 3 million. Refugees we've spoken with say that North Koreans estimate among themselves that one-fourth of the country's 22 million citizens have died. Since 1990, North Korea has had a food shortage of more than 1 million tons every year, recently increasing to two millions tons.
A major reason for the famine can be blamed on a deterioriating North Korea economy. The Heritage Foundation and Wall St. Journal, ranked North Korea last out of 155 countries in the [url=http://cf.heritage.org/index/country.cfm?ID=79.0]2002 Index of Economic Freedom[/url]. Former leader Kim Il Sung attempted to double rice production by ploughing up marginal land on hillsides, uprooting trees in the process. As the economy worsened, farmers cut down more trees to barter with China for food. As a result of the deforestation, mountain topsoil that would normally absorb rain was washed away. Thus normal amounts of rainfall caused major flooding in farmlands and destroyed crops. North Korea also lost many trading partners with the fall of communism in Eastern Europe in the early 1990s, which cut off significant supplies of oil and coal.
North
Koreans have been taught that the U.S. is causing the food shortages, but several
refugees we talked to said some people are blaming the leadership skills of
Kim Jong Il, who became the country's leader after the death of his father in
1994. One boy said kids call him "Kim Bae Tae," or "Big-bellied
Kim." He also asked in disgust how this leader could be considered great
when he couldn't even feed a small country.
To help with the food shortage, refugees say the government allocates small, daily rations of rice porridge with ground corn. On four special days each year - the birthdays of Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il, Kim Jung Sook, and communism - the government normally gives everyone a meal of duck, cookies and liquor. In recent years, however, refugees say this hasn't been the case.
Food is available to buy in stores, but few can afford it. Out of desperation,
people are scavenging for plants, tree bark and any animal they can get a hold
of. Despite efforts by the international community to provide hunger relief
aid to North Korea, refugees we've talked to have yet to benefit from it. They
are aware that countries, including the United States and South Korea, have
sent food in the past. One person said that the government had given food to
people for foreigners to see and take pictures, but demanded the food back once
they left.
RESOURCES
Refugee Interview
"Mother killing and eating son in our town..." (from 6/27/01 interview
with NK woman in her 20s) 
original korean
"Neighbor eating kid..." (from 6/27/01 interview with Korean-Chinese
grandma who delivers food into NK)
original korean
"Dying of a bursting stomach..." (from 7/2/01 interview with SK mworker)
original korean
Articles
"The Truth Behind the North Korea Famine" (M. Div. Thesis, David Lee)
"Famine in North Korea: Causes and Cures," Marcus Noland, Sherman Robinson, and Tao Wang (pdf download, 51-page report)
"Food aid to North Korea is propping up a Stalinist regime" (Sept. 6, 2001, Guardian)
UN World Food Project Crop and Food Supply Assessment, October 2001 (download as pdf file)
North Korea Economic Freedom Index (ranked last), Wall Street Journal, 2001 (download as pdf file)
