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Ration cuts leave people starving to death (North Korea)
The Austrailian ^ | 6/5/08

Posted on 06/04/2008 1:37:32 PM PDT by Dawnsblood

FOOD shortages are gripping North Korea and there are signs some of its citizens may be starving to death, experts and rights activists say.

Food rations across much of North Korea have been slashed, and the country's 1.1million-strong military reportedly stopped major exercises so soldiers could help raise crops, according to reports out of South Korea.

After a three-year hiatus, the Bush administration is resuming food supplies to North Korea, The Australian reports.

A US freighter carrying bulk grain is sailing to make the first delivery of about 500,000 tonnes of food that Washington promised last month to the Kim Jong-il regime to be delivered over the next year.

But experts said most of the US food would arrive too late to help with critical pre-harvest food shortages that intensified by the day and were likely to remain bad until August harvests.

"I would describe the situation as very serious," said Marcus Noland, a North Korea specialist at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington. "What we are seeing now are pre-famine indicators.

"Some hunger-related deaths are probably inevitable, if they haven't already started."

Dozens of South Korean religious and civic leaders on Monday demanded that the new Government of conservative President Lee Myung-bak relax its hard line on North Korea and deliver emergency food supplies, even if North Korea spurns the offer.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.au ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: food; northkorea; shortages
The North always starts trouble when food becomes scarce. I wonder what they will do this time?
1 posted on 06/04/2008 1:37:33 PM PDT by Dawnsblood
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To: Dawnsblood

2 posted on 06/04/2008 1:40:34 PM PDT by Vigilanteman ((Are there any men left in Washington? Or are there only cowards? Ahmad Shah Massoud))
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To: Dawnsblood

I read a book about a guy who grew up in a NK concentration camp. He escaped to South Korea. For days, he would just wander through grocery stores in utter amazement. He couldn’t believe that much food existed in one place.


3 posted on 06/04/2008 1:44:03 PM PDT by AppyPappy (If you aren't part of the solution, there is good money to be made prolonging the problem.)
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To: Vigilanteman

N. Korea must have been one of the countries that Obama was thinking of when he said the rest of the world won’t let us eat as much as we want anymore.


4 posted on 06/04/2008 1:45:19 PM PDT by Abathar (Proudly posting without reading the article carefully since 2004)
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To: Dawnsblood

Have they given the chinese their trains back, yet?


5 posted on 06/04/2008 1:46:39 PM PDT by patton (cuiquam in sua arte credendum)
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To: Dawnsblood

even without a war, when the peninsula is reunited, it’s going to take most of South Korea’s GDP to rebuild the North.


6 posted on 06/04/2008 1:49:13 PM PDT by kms61
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To: Vigilanteman

I wanna know what he’s seeing up in the sky. He never looks at the little people, just over their heads.


7 posted on 06/04/2008 1:49:25 PM PDT by driftdiver
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To: Vigilanteman

And you can bet that if he gets in office and taxes the socks off of us, “change” is all we’ll have left...pennys, dimes, and a Susan B Anthony or two


8 posted on 06/04/2008 1:53:16 PM PDT by woollyone (100 rounds per week totals 5000 rounds in a year. Just thought you'd want to know.)
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To: driftdiver

the little voices.


9 posted on 06/04/2008 1:55:11 PM PDT by woollyone (100 rounds per week totals 5000 rounds in a year. Just thought you'd want to know.)
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To: kms61

They could start sooner if we quit feeding the NK Army.


10 posted on 06/04/2008 2:01:20 PM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks
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To: Eric in the Ozarks
They could start sooner if we quit feeding the NK Army.

AMEN! This administration has definately got a case of the stupids when in comes to NK.

11 posted on 06/04/2008 2:02:43 PM PDT by dfwgator ( This tag blank until football season.)
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To: Dawnsblood

“A US freighter carrying bulk grain is sailing to make the first delivery of about 500,000 tonnes of food that Washington promised last month to the Kim...”

Why do we subsidize tyranny? The food will be repackaged with North Korean labels and then be distributed to the party, then the military, in that order. Those who are starving will continue to starve.


12 posted on 06/04/2008 2:07:19 PM PDT by Spok
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To: Dawnsblood

Marxism is great! Have “hope”, “change we can believe in”, and “yes we can!” LOL


13 posted on 06/04/2008 2:08:54 PM PDT by HwyChile
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To: Dawnsblood

Marxism is great! Have “hope”, “change we can believe in”, and “yes we can!” LOL


14 posted on 06/04/2008 2:08:58 PM PDT by HwyChile
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To: AppyPappy
Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag (Paperback)

Yeah, he was a kid when most of his family were thrown into a NK gulag becuase Grandpa was a big mouth. Pres. Bush read it and I think anyone with any interest in Korean politics should read this book.

15 posted on 06/04/2008 2:12:22 PM PDT by Tamar1973 (Catch the Korean Wave, one Bae Yong Joon film at a time!)
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To: Vigilanteman
Change...we can believe in. But definitely won't like.
16 posted on 06/04/2008 2:12:38 PM PDT by Red Dog #1 (Up is down and down is up...)
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To: Spok
I think the answer might be in post #6. I'm not particularly sure anyone in South Korea's leadership is interested in seeing a sudden collapse.
17 posted on 06/04/2008 2:14:48 PM PDT by Red Dog #1 (Up is down and down is up...)
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To: driftdiver

check out the cover of the latest edition of the Onion.


18 posted on 06/04/2008 2:15:38 PM PDT by WOBBLY BOB (Conservatives are to McCain what Charlie Brown is to Lucy.)
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To: Dawnsblood

Well. the army will eat better and the bureaucrats will eat well and the people will starve knowing the guardians of the nation are fit and on the job.


19 posted on 06/04/2008 2:23:24 PM PDT by arthurus
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To: Dawnsblood

“”Some hunger-related deaths are probably inevitable, if they haven’t already started.”

The deaths have never stopped.


20 posted on 06/04/2008 2:38:03 PM PDT by swmobuffalo ("We didn't seek the approval of Code Pink and MoveOn.org before deciding what to do")
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To: AppyPappy
A US freighter carrying bulk grain is sailing to make the first delivery of about 500,000 tonnes of food that Washington promised last month

I just LOOOOOve the way my taxes go to pay for stuff like this. And to screw up other peoples kids in public school. Or pay for TVs for welfare sl***. Or to regulate my life. I am so freaking tired of poring my money away for next to nothing in return.
21 posted on 06/04/2008 2:41:03 PM PDT by TalonDJ
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To: Vigilanteman

Obama’s remarks that Americans won’t be able to eat as much or set their thermostats to 72F as usual are a real danger sign. We have been warned. In fact, I haven’t been more concerned in all my life. I will literally fight to death to avoid being starved to death by communists.


22 posted on 06/04/2008 2:47:30 PM PDT by TexasRepublic (When hopelessness replaces hope, it opens the door to evil.)
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To: Dawnsblood

The Democrats are bound and determined to impose an irrational form of rationing upon the American People in the form of Carbon Trading.


23 posted on 06/04/2008 2:53:49 PM PDT by Mike Darancette (Obama: "America is the greatest country on earth, help me change America.")
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To: driftdiver
I wanna know what he’s seeing up in the sky. He never looks at the little people, just over their heads.

Paradise replete with 72 virgins.

24 posted on 06/04/2008 2:56:04 PM PDT by Mike Darancette (Obama: "America is the greatest country on earth, help me change America.")
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To: Vigilanteman

I’ve been reading that the people are starving to death in N Korea for 10 years. I can’t believe it anymore. How could there be any left?


25 posted on 06/04/2008 3:07:14 PM PDT by DManA
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To: Dawnsblood

Food is scarce because this is how the commies raise money to support their fetid system.

10 million in Ukraine and 60 million in China.


26 posted on 06/04/2008 3:13:00 PM PDT by spanalot
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To: Tamar1973

That is a great book but it can be tough to endure.


27 posted on 06/05/2008 5:04:17 AM PDT by AppyPappy (If you aren't part of the solution, there is good money to be made prolonging the problem.)
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To: Abathar
I have a feeling that after a couple of years under an Obama Administration, North Korea will be sending us emergency food supplies so we won't starve to death.
28 posted on 06/05/2008 10:02:44 AM PDT by HenpeckedCon (Deport them all... Let God sort them out!)
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