North Korea begs for food.

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Slayven

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/19/AR2011021901953_2.html

TOKYO - North Korea recently took the unusual step of begging for food handouts from the foreign governments it usually threatens.

Plagued by floods, an outbreak of a livestock disease and a brutal winter, the government ordered its embassies and diplomatic offices around the world to seek help.

The request has put the United States and other Western countries in the uncomfortable position of having to decide whether to ignore the pleas of a starving country or pump food into a corrupt distribution system that often gives food to those who need it least.

The United States, which suspended its food aid to North Korea two years ago amid concerns about transparency, "has no plans for any contributions at this time," said Kurt Campbell, the State Department's top East Asia official.

Meanwhile, the U.N. World Food Program, responsible for much of the food aid in North Korea, said its current food supply could sustain operations in the communist country for only another month.

"We're certainly hopeful that new donations will be coming in the upcoming weeks," said Marcus Prior, the WFP's spokesman in Asia.

Next month, the WFP plans to complete an assessment of North Korea's food situation - a report that could influence how foreign governments respond. But few doubt that North Korea's 24 million people need food.

For two decades, since the collapse of a public distribution system that supplied food rations, Kim Jong Il's government has neglected to care for its people. In the early and mid-1990s, an estimated 1 million died in a famine.

North Korea has since developed a grass-roots network of private markets - a stand-in for government programs but also the target of occasional crackdowns from a leadership that views free-market activity as a threat.

Amid the food shortages, though, humanitarian experts describe another failure: the international aid effort. Outsiders have yet to devise a formula that reaches basic standards for monitoring or effectiveness. After 15 years and about $2 billion of aid efforts, one in four pregnant women is malnourished and one in three children is stunted.

The government places obstacles at every step of the distribution process - the top complaint from U.S. officials, who demand better transparency before aid resumes.

Sen. Richard G. Lugar (Ind.), the ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, released a statement this week calling it "essential" that U.S. assistance is "actually received by hungry North Korean children and their families, rather than reinforcing the North Korean military whose care is already a priority over the rest of the population."
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More at the website.
 
BertramCooper said:
Can't the Dear Leader shit rice or something?

Is that not one of his many powers?
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I think the issue is he can't give rice to others, not shit out the rice he eats
 
Send them food with smartphones hidden in it. With an internet network or something. Revolution. ... Profit.
 
If they reformed and stopped investing in their military like idiots, there would be no food problem.

Anyway, if we don't give them food, there will be a revolution, and the regime will be eliminated and the Koreas reunited. So there's your answer.

For shortages always = revolution. Always.
 
Unless they make concessions of some sort, I do not think they should be freely given aid since nothing will really change and the cycle will keep repeating itself
 
Kafel said:
Send them food with smartphones hidden in it. With an internet network or something. Revolution. ... Profit.
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Don't you understand? he's intentionally starving them so they don't have the strength to fight back you can't protest on an empty stomach.
 
It doesn't even make sense for them to have such a large army. Missiles that can hit Seoul yes, an army that can be obliterated in a matter of a few hours, no.
 
Pokielhl said:
It doesn't even make sense for them to have such a large army. Missiles that can hit Seoul yes, an army that can be obliterated in a matter of a few hours, no.
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Logic? In North-Korea? hahahahaah! what is this?!
 
Okay, just let us enter the country to distribute it ourselves and monitor its consumption to make sure it isn't taken from the needy.
 
I don't want to blame the average NK citizen for this plight, but there is really no other choice but to withhold food aid.

If they get hungry enough, they will rebel and a revolution will take place, I agree.
 
Ether_Snake said:
If they reformed and stopped investing in their military like idiots, there would be no food problem.

Anyway, if we don't give them food, there will be a revolution, and the regime will be eliminated and the Koreas reunited. So there's your answer.

For shortages always = revolution. Always.
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Except they've been through famine over and over again and still no revolution.

The attrocities that happen within N Korea are really depressing and even if foreign bodies were to give aid, there is no chance that it'd be going to the right people who actually need and deserve it. That's the most disheartening thing about the whole situation.

Dear Leader is feasting every day while the general public is forced to cook grass for dinner.
 
north-korea-is-best-korea.jpg


Seriously, I feel awful for North Koreans. I wonder how many are actually brainwashed by Kim and how many are just scared to do anything?
 
Dice said:
Okay, just let us enter the country to distribute it ourselves and monitor its consumption to make sure it isn't taken from the needy.
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lulz. but seriously, part of me says we should due to morals, but part of me says the government is just going to hoarde it all. decisions.
 
lightless_shado said:
Don't you understand? he's intentionally starving them so they don't have the strength to fight back you can't protest on an empty stomach.
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Well I thought the empty stomach is historically the reason #1 why you protest. Nah, we have to give them the info, like in the Truman Show.
 
NomarTyme said:
Please don't give them anything. People to need to fucking taking over and kill em!
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titiklabingapat said:
If they get hungry enough, they will rebel and a revolution will take place, I agree.
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Like the people did in the 90s?

"In the early and mid-1990s, an estimated 1 million died in a famine."

Oh wait they didn't overthrow the government, they just starved to death.
 
If you guys don't know the complete history of foreign aid and Kim Jong Il is a long one. Their whole economy relies on it. Kim Jon Il tells his starving citizens that the food America is sending North Korea is for "Past Offenses". They try and portray the relationship as one where America "owes" them the food.

It should be noted that U.S. law prohibits foreign aid to countries that violate human rights

:lol
 
xbhaskarx said:
Like the people did in the 90s?

"In the early and mid-1990s, an estimated 1 million died in a famine."

Oh wait they didn't overthrow the government, they just starved to death.
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I was just fantasizing.
 
there won't be a revolution

people are too hungry to rebel, and the state is too powerful to take down

not to mention decades of nationalism and yadda yadda yadda and so on
 
Kafel said:
Well I thought the empty stomach is historically the reason #1 why you protest. Nah, we have to give them the info, like in the Truman Show.
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North Korea is like the little girl that's mean to the boy she likes. Kim Jong il needs to just Kim Jong Chill and seek to unify with the south.

Where's Chitownbuffalo when you need him. He'd back me up on this.
 
Do DPRK citizens have any concept of protest?

The personality cult is so pervasive that I don't know if questioning Kim even enters their minds, no matter how hungry they are.
 
Ether_Snake said:
If they reformed and stopped investing in their military like idiots, there would be no food problem.

Anyway, if we don't give them food, there will be a revolution, and the regime will be eliminated and the Koreas reunited. So there's your answer.

For shortages always = revolution. Always.
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And you ridicule me for my UFO threads?
 
xbhaskarx said:
Like the people did in the 90s?

"In the early and mid-1990s, an estimated 1 million died in a famine."

Oh wait they didn't overthrow the government, they just starved to death.
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Fuck, thats alot of people if NK has a total of 20 million people you'd think the amount of people affected would be enough to overthrow, but apparently not.
 
China should be the one to give them food if they're going to be the one protecting them all the time. Their economy is pretty bitchin these days, they can sweat it.
 
BertramCooper said:
Do DPRK citizens have any concept of protest?

The personality cult is so pervasive that I don't know if questioning Kim even enters their minds, no matter how hungry they are.
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I don't think it does enter their minds. I was going to suggest offering food to those willing to defect, but not many would be willing, and those that are would just be stopped and/or killed by NK military.

=(
 
CrankyJay said:
=(

I don't want people to die.
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Neither do I. However, it's up to Kim Jong Il to save them. Their figurative blood is on his hands. Sad, but it's what they get for trusting someone so blindly, even if it's not what they deserve.
 
XMonkey said:
As much as it sucks for the innocents in the population, we shouldn't give them food.
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So a country should be left to starve because their government is stubborn and irrational? Where do you people even come from. To my left, people are being attacked for being different. To my right people are being killed for nothing. And here I read things like this?

XMonkey, I'll pay for your first session if you meet a psychiatrist. I have hardly anything in my account but I'm willing to help out.
 
vas_a_morir said:
Neither do I. However, it's up to Kim Jong Il to save them. Their figurative blood is on his hands. Sad, but it's what they get for trusting someone so blindly, even if it's not what they deserve.
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They have no real choice, hell they don't even know there is a choice, that's how brainwashed they are.

But your post reeks of privileged ignorance.
 
The US better not give them food. I'm sorry, but we all know what is going to happen when the food arrives. Kim is going to hold it for himself and use it as leverage to instill his power to the people.

While letting the NK starve to death might be a terrible thing, they at least won't have to suffer living under the regime over their lifetime. This also greatly weakens the military since there will be less people to join the ranks.
 
It sucks that they are begging but if nations just keep giving them this shit then they'll never stop being the little bitches they are. I say fuck 'em.
 
Masta_Killah said:
The US better not give them food. I'm sorry, but we all know what is going to happen when the food arrives. Kim is going to hold it for himself and use it as leverage to instill his power to the people.

While letting the NK starve to death might be a terrible thing, they at least won't have to suffer living under the regime over their lifetime. This also greatly weakens the military since there will be less people to join the ranks.
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Something tells me there are better answers then systematically starving a whole nation but we're concentrating our efforts on blowing up brown people in another part of the world.
 
Meus Renaissance said:
So a country should be left to starve because their government is stubborn and irrational? Where do you people even come from. To my left, people are being attacked for being different. To my right people are being killed for nothing. And here I read things like this?

XMonkey, I'll pay for your first session if you meet a psychiatrist. I have hardly anything in my account but I'm willing to help out.
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lol, I'm hardly alone in this viewpoint.

I meant "we" as in the US, maybe I should have made that clear. If any other country/organization wants to give them food then by all means go ahead. It's not like the food given to North Korea goes to those who need it the most anyways, it's naive to think otherwise.
 
I don't see the North Korean people fighting back until the information barrier that envelops the country begins to crumble.

They know nothing but suffering and think the rest of the world is worse off than they are. Until they wake up, it's not going to change.
 
Honestly at this rate I'm going to have to get on anti-depressants. If something as simple as food is being politicised/debated, there is no hope for this world
 
Devolution said:
They have no real choice, hell they don't even know there is a choice, that's how brainwashed they are.

But your post reeks of privileged ignorance.
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If you don't mind, could you please elaborate on your snide remark?
 
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