Let Them Eat Grass (DPRK)

While Kim Jr. continues to fund a nuclear weapons program, import lavish feasts for himself and his cronies and feed his oversized military machine, his own people have to resort to eating grass in order to survive between insufficiant harvests of food.

This is probably an extreme example of what Moammar Quaddafi of Libya was refering to when he said "We can not afford weapons programs such as these"

I am in disbelief that a people such as the Koreans can much longer put up with a government as corrupt as the DPRK is.

This is a travesty that no one including the U.S. media is paying attention to at all.
Starving People Eat Grass
"Starving North Koreans are foraging for wild grasses to augment scant spring food supplies, a World Food Programme official said today. Gerald Bourke, a spokesman for the UN agency in Beijing, said there was insufficient food coming in for WFP to feed hungry North Koreans"

And this guy Kim Jr's ego drives him to play games on the world stage by playing a game of brinkmanship with the U.S. while his people resort to eating grass - how F'd up is that ?

Here's some background on the situation:

Contrary to Bush's assertion, most experts agree that geopolitical and ecological events led to a one-two punch that resulted in the North Korean famine in the 1990s. The first major blow to North Korean food production was the collapse of the former Soviet Union and the socialist trading bloc, which eliminated North Korea's major trading partners. The end of subsidized oil from the former Soviet Union and China literally halted the tractors of North Korean farmers. The second blow-major droughts and floods that were the worst of the century-destroyed much of the harvest and forced Pyongyang to seek Western and Japanese aid.

The persistence of famine, however, is due to economic sanctions led by the U.S. and its refusal to end the 50-year Korean War. What is scarcely known about North Korea is that up until the 1980s, North Korea's agricultural and economic growth far outpaced South Korea. The World Health Organization and other United Nations agencies have praised their delivery of basic health services, noting that North Korean children were far better vaccinated than American children, and that life expectancy rates in North Korea surpassed that of South Korea.

Furthermore, only about 20 percent of North Korea's mostly mountainous land is suitable for agriculture. Before the Korean peninsula was divided, the north served as Korea's industrial base and the south as its breadbasket. Despite these odds, by 1961, North Korea achieved agricultural self-sufficiency, an amazing feat for a nation that scarcely a decade before was left in a pile of rubble.

The Korean War claimed four million lives and left North Korean agriculture bombed to bits. According to historians, the U.S. military's mission in the North, called the 'scorched earth policy,' exhibited unprecedented brutality far worse than in Vietnam. The U.S. Air Force's use of napalm destroyed irrigation dams and facilities that provided 75 percent of North Korea's food production. This very same act of aggression was considered a war crime when Nazis destroyed much smaller facilities in Holland.

www.globalpolicy.org...


[Edited on 3-4-2004 by AceOfBase]

Let me guess, this is Bush's fault also?
(ok, I'll go get Kano now to give me a one-liner warn....)



seekerof

Quoting AceOfBase,
The Korean War claimed four million lives and left North Korean agriculture bombed to bits. According to historians, the U.S. military's mission in the North, called the 'scorched earth policy,' exhibited unprecedented brutality far worse than in Vietnam. The U.S. Air Force's use of napalm destroyed irrigation dams and facilities that provided 75 percent of North Korea's food production. This very same act of aggression was considered a war crime when Nazis destroyed much smaller facilities in Holland.

Well yeah I can see this as a problem in the 50's but since then what excuse does the current government have for starving their people for more weapons programs. I actually think from your prior postings that you lie on the other side of this issue.

No SO, this is not bush's fault I only wish to point out the irony of the lefts concern for the downtrodden when its seems to be in their best interest (IE: publicised) to act in the common mans interest, wheres the outrage from the left is what I want to know?

Originally posted by PhoenixWell yeah I can see this as a problem in the 50's but since then what excuse does the current government have for starving their people for more weapons programs. I actually think from your prior postings that you lie on the other side of this issue.

I do think Kim Jong-Il certainly shares a lot of the blame for the situation his people are in.

They do spend more money on their military program than any other country out there in terms of percentage of GDP.
www.nationmaster.com...

That money could be put towards agriculture.
Cutting down on their Military build up could also facilitate in increasing their trade as countries will be more willing to deal with them.

I was pointing out some of the other reasons behind the starvation that happened though.

I should have left the Scorched Earth part out of my quoted text from that website.

"The persistence of famine, however, is due to economic sanctions led by the U.S. and its refusal to end the 50-year Korean War."

Yup, its all our fault. Intitially we wanted that war, right? We somehow begged the North Koreans to attack the South? And we want the hostilities to continue? North Korae has many times wanted to dismantle their military and stop threatening the South, but we won't let them? CIA agents have guns placed against the leaders' heads and are forcing them to do things like pursue WMD's?

Yup, that is a logical line of thinking.
*sigh*

Thanks TC, for interjecting some logic here. As soon as I saw this thread, I wondered how long it would take for someone to blame Bush.

I guess it's Bush's fault for not giving in to more blackmail. Hmmmm. Didn't Bill Clinton already solve this problem by bribing NK with a nice food aid program? Didn't they sign an agreement? If Saint Bill fixed it, what is the deal? Oh, I guess GWB had the CIA go in and covertly steal back all the food money.

Let me see. China shares a border with NK. We on the other hand are thousands of miles away, but yet it is our fault and our responsibility?

Oh, man! I stubbed my toe. It must be George Bush's fault...