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The indefatigable Dr Lankov (pdf file) has a fascinating and shocking article in Asia Times about food distribution in North Korea. Defectors are his main source of information.
They reckon time by "before" or "after" the collapse of the Public Distribution System (PDS). That was when short rations became progressively shorter, when ration cards and artificially low prices were meaningless because the supplies had failed.
Thousands of people died. Estimates vary - the more conservative put it at just over 500,000 but some say more than 2 million. Even the BBC mentions vague reports by "aid agencies" suggesting that up to two million people died.
It is sobering to read the report of the World Food Programme (pdf file).
They reckon time by "before" or "after" the collapse of the Public Distribution System (PDS). That was when short rations became progressively shorter, when ration cards and artificially low prices were meaningless because the supplies had failed.
Thousands of people died. Estimates vary - the more conservative put it at just over 500,000 but some say more than 2 million. Even the BBC mentions vague reports by "aid agencies" suggesting that up to two million people died.
It is sobering to read the report of the World Food Programme (pdf file).
In 2004, 6.5 million people in the DPR Korea - mainly women and children - will continue to need food assistance. At present they are targeting about 6.5 million beneficiaries: children, nursing mothers, and the elderly.Other humanitarian organisations are at work there, including the Red Cross, which claims a staggering 330,000 volunteers and 371,730 Red Cross Youth at the community level, and over a million members in the DPRK.
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