CNN/AP: U.N.: North Korea faces hungry winter

[DeepModem Mom]

U.N.: N. Korea faces hungry winter
October 16, 2006


Children eat U.N.-donated food in Hyangsan, North Korea, last week.

BEIJING, China (AP) -- Millions of North Koreans face "real hardship" this winter due to cuts in food aid from foreign donors, the U.N.'s food agency said Monday, as the country sank further into isolation after its claimed nuclear test.

U.N. Security Council sanctions imposed after Pyongyang's purported nuclear test last week don't apply to food aid, which the impoverished country has relied on to feed its people for more than a decade.

But South Korea, a key donor, stopped aid after the North fired a series of missiles in July, and supplies from China, the North's main foreign food donor, are one-third of last year's levels, said Mike Huggins, a WFP spokesman who just returned from a five-day visit to North Korea.

The United States also has stopped donating to the WFP's North Korea operations, but says it will continue other food aid to the North.

The aid shortages come on top of the North's decision to accept less food from the World Food Program. A decision that means about 4 million people fewer are being fed this year, Huggins said....

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/10/16/nkorea.hunger.ap/index.html

[BootinUp]

1. Punishing the weak

Good job Bush!

[pampango]

12. Bush is too incompetent to get China and South Korea to do

anything. Cutting back food aid to the North is a immoral policy, but perhaps China and SK don't know what else to do. Even if they hadn't cut back the aid, Kim might have refused to accept it anyway, like he has cut back on the aid NK accepts from the World Food Program.

It reminds me how much people oppressed by brutal dictators yearn to be free. In spite of the immoral invasion and unending violence and death in Iraq, the majority of Iraqis still feel that it was worth it to get rid of Saddam. If anything Kim is even worse. His people are starving even without international sanctions.

[Mika]

2. Those hungry young children need to stop threatening 'Muricans

:sarcasm:

[keta11]

3. I wish some oppo people will somehow wake up in

that country and throw the communists out. Unbelievable that millions of people can be so brainwashed into deifying that clown Kim Jong-il and his family forever. Its tough but I wish it could be done.

[maxsolomon]

4. the only way to break Kim's grip is for him to die

he's the son of the the founder of NK's totalitarian state. the dynasty must not continue. without the dear leader, i think the edifice of control would quickly collapse.

there is no realistic hope that an indigenous opposition could collapse the NK government. the people are propagandized within an inch of their lives, taught that theirs is a pure race & everyone else is a mongrel, and have no clue as to the real conditions outside NK. sort of like americans :sarcasm:, but more like 1984, with constant starvation - the kids that make it out of NK to china or SK are often 6" shorter than the typical South Korean.

this isn't our fight alone - china needs to wake the fuck up & eliminate him - but many innocents there will starve before it happens. there are signs that they are fed up, and this is good.

[keta11]

5. His children would carry on the dynasty!

Didn't the elder Kim Song-il rule for 50 years? Check these out on wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Jong_Il

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Il-sung

When I visited India as a child, the library I went to regularly stocked glossy, colorful picture monthly propaganda tracts from NK where they touted Juche (self-reliance), industrialization, self-sufficiency in food production, culture and the all-knowing "Great Leader". Everything looked paradise perfect in those glossies.

[Ignacio Upton]

7. Should China invade and topple him, a la Vietnam toppling Pol Pot?

I'm not entirely against this option, but I'm concern that invasion to lead to de facto annexation.

[keta11]

8. It has to be from within

However, they have a labirynth (sp?) complex socio-political system. I think everybody has to belong to the Workers Party and the Dear Leader is revered as a god on earth. Its just a scary cult they started over there.

[maxsolomon]

10. i'd prefer assassination & negotiation with the military

once the element of psychological control is removed, the edifice would collapse like Romania or Albania. i think.

[keta11]

11. The people need some exposure to the

outside world. I hear they are indoctrinated from childhood that life is worse outside of North Korea.

The perfect way would be to find some of their diplo-military people who have been exposed to the outside world who has enough muscle to control the top hierarchy after the assassination, to take over and re-orient that country or pursue merger talks with the south.

[maxsolomon]

14. exposure to the outside is not happening

if it was going to happen, it would have happened in the last 50 years. Kim sr. & Kim jr. have built the perfect totalitarian state.

i would assume that your scenario is the one being pursued by all: SK, China, Murka, Japan, but the rewards at the top of the NK heirarchy must outweigh the risks.

now, with a nuke, NK could go on 20, 30 more years. Kim is what? 60?

[Ignacio Upton]

6. I can't wait until Kim dies

So South Korea can seek reunification. The North Koreans have had enough for his tyranny.

[Yupster]

16. I wonder if South Korea

is adding up the cost of bringing the North into the 21st century.

It may make the costs of German reunification look like a Happy Meal.

[devilgrrl]

9. It's Clinton's Fault.

:sarcasm:

[Taoschick]

13. We can send food aid

But we can't keep Kim from feeding his military and starving the poor. There has to be some kind of monitoring program to ensure the food is going to the people who need it.

[Megahurtz]

15. God this makes me sick.

:puke:Bush and his Fucking Bullying War-Machine!:argh:

Unfortunately the Meek of the World will suffer for this Administration's actions.

Way to go, GOP!
Just as long as all of you get to eat and go home to your million dollar homes every night
and take your lavish vacations several times a year. :sarcasm: