Starvation in North Korea

Starvation in North Korea

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Introduction

North Korea has been described as a destitute, starving country, a description that arises from the nation’s major famine that was experienced in the late 1990s that led to the death of a very huge number of North Korean citizens. In the late 1990s, a fractured economic infrastructure and inadequate food production were said to the cumulative effects that led to the greatest famine the nation has ever faced. Since the majority of the nation’s population relies on the food that is produced from only a small percentage of the arable land available countrywide, the food that was produced then plus other economic issues caused the massive famine. The nation recovered as the famine ended towards the early 2000s. However, the nation still goes through a hard time. It has been reported that there still is a huge number of individuals who suffer from hunger and malnutrition. This research in this paper sets to establish the current state of starvation in North Korea with a linkage between the current state and the 1990s famine.

Research Questions

1. Is North Korea facing starvation and what is the extent of the starvation the nation has experienced?
2. Has the government contributed to the state of starvation in North Korea and how?

Perspectives

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, also known as North Korea, is located in East Asia, borders China and Russia to the north and South Korea to the south (Appendix 1). It is a small state with a temperate climate, whereby rainfall comes mainly during summer and long winters. Its terrain consists of hills and mountains that are separated by deep and narrow valleys. It also has wide coastal plains. The total arable land covers 20% of the nation, and a huge percentage of the nation is covered by forest. The nation came into being after Korea was divided into two zones at the end of the Second World War in 1945. The media remains fascinated with the nation’s supposed weirdness even today, whereby it is portrayed as a monolithic state and society and one that is sealed from the knowledge of the outside world. It is described as an independent socialist state, which, despite the fact that is holds elections formally, is somewhat a totalitarian dictatorship. The nation has a constitution which represents the interests of all Koreans, whereby the DPRK is said to be a nation that defends the democratic, national rights of Koreans overseas and their rights as recognized under international law. Sovereignty in the state emanates from workers, peasants, working intellectuals and all other working people, the social groups there. State organs, as per the constitution, are organized and operate on the democratic centralism principle (Worden 2009). Foreign forces have been driven out of the DPRK as the governments have been trying to reunify the nation on a democratic basis.

North Korea has been ruled by a family, the Kim family, since the end of World War II. Kim II-sung, who was the nation’s leader from 1948, established a one-man dictatorship in the DPRK, whereby the people are required to have total loyalty and subjugation to the Kim family through successive generations. Successive leaders in the nation have been part of the Kim family, with the current being Kim Jong Un, the son of Kim Jong II (Armstrong 2013).  It was under Kim Jong II that North Korea suffered its worst famine ever. Under the leadership of Kim’s family, North Korea has been molded around a socialist system that follows extensive military policies, whereby the nation has carried out long-range missile development, proliferation of military-related items, the testing of nuclear devices, massive conventional armed forces, and has a history of military provocations (Central Intelligence Agency 2017). Its way of doing things has been of major concern to the international community, and as result, the DPRK has minimal international engagement.

Background

It has almost been two decades since North Korea underwent a massive famine that led to the deaths of around a million people. The situation was so dire that some people went to the extent of feeding on soup made from grasses and weed. The famine was caused by drought, huge floods, cold winters, and above all, poor economic policies. Since then, the nation has not fully recovered, as in 2011, more than five million North Koreans were at risk of food shortage. The UN’s World Food Program reported that the food shortage was the worst the DPRK had experienced in a decade (Howard-Hassman 2012). The harsh winters, exhausted agricultural land, flooding, and the unwillingness of the regime to spend its hard currency reserves that had been dwindling to buy food for the more than 24 million citizens. Additionally, the suspension of food aid by countries as the US due to North Korea pursuing nuclear weapon programs and threatening South Korea, its neighbor in 2008 has contributed to further starvation (Haggard Noland and Weeks 2008).

Methods of Analysis

Secondary research has been used to understand the state of starvation in North Korea. Various journal articles and books containing information on the current condition the DPRK’s citizens are facing have been analyzed in detail.

Findings

The mid 1990s for the DPRK were marked by widespread starvation and severe famine. The DPRK’s government has followed an economic system that mainly focuses on the development of weapons such as nuclear ones instead of implementing policies that can drive the country’s residents out of the poor conditions they live in. The massive 1994 famine resulted from economic infrastructure that was highly fractured in addition to the nation’s inadequate food production. The factor that is pointed out to be major causation for the famine in 1994 is the fractured government policy action. Accusations have pointed out that the famine was a direct policy choice by the North Korean government. Additionally, international bodies have stated that the international relief sources the government received was mainly invested into the military and in the development of weapons instead of being concentrated towards industrial output, agricultural production, exports, trade, and even political relations (Lee 2006).

While the nation was seeking food security through self-sufficiency after the partition of Korea in 1948 through the production of rice to the south, and maize, potatoes, and a few other staple food to the north, the efforts were not enough to avoid declining agricultural production from around 1989. The then government began defaulting on its international debts. It also foreclosed the access of the DPRK to international capital markets. On the other hand, the nation fell out with the Soviet Union, which was its primary patron. All these factors made the value of the repayments for the past aid it had received exceed the inflow of new assistance. Subsequently, the Soviet Union collapsed, and the Eastern Bloc underwent a break-up, which precipitated an enormous macroeconomic shock (Noland, Sherman and Wang 2001).