North Koreans Told Prepare For Famine (Again)
Superstation95.com
Mar 29, 2016
In a proclamation that will strike fear into the hearts of the North Korean people, state media has ordered the citizenry to prepare for a new “arduous march.” The term was first coined by the North Korean leadership in 1993 as a metaphor for the four-year famine that decimated the nation from 1994.
The famine – in which as many as 3.5 million of the nation’s 22 million people died – was brought on by economic mismanagement, natural disasters, the collapse of the Soviet bloc and the consequent loss of aid, combined with the regime’s insistence on continuing a life of luxury and feeding the military.
Now, less than one month after the United Nations Security Council voted in favour of new sanctions against North Korea for its recent nuclear and missile tests, Pyongyang has announced a nationwide campaign to save food.
“The road to revolution is long and arduous”, an editorial in the state-run Rodong Sinmun newspaper stated on Monday. “We may have to go on an arduous march, during which we will have to chew the roots of plants once again.”
The Chosun Ilbo, a South Korean newspaper, reported that every citizen of Pyongyang is being ordered to provide 1kg (2.2lb) of rice to the state’s warehouses every month, while farmers are being forced to “donate” additional supplies from their own meagre crops to the military.
There are also reports of North Koreans hoarding food supplies due to fears of another famine, while the regime has started to crack down on the open-air markets that serve as an important source of additional food for city-dwellers and have been tolerated in recent years.
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