48
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 14 Jul 2023
48 points (91.4% liked)
World News
32291 readers
831 users here now
News from around the world!
Rules:
-
Please only post links to actual news sources, no tabloid sites, etc
-
No NSFW content
-
No hate speech, bigotry, propaganda, etc
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
One thing I find interesting about the fediverse is that it is so empty that you can occasionally see honest-to-God pro-NK propaganda. NK lost a quarter of a million people to starvation in the 1990's and are on a fast track to repeat the past. So glad you have access to the internet. Good for you.
Land in North Korea is widely known to be barely arable. So if they can't meet demand domestically, they must import food.
But, they have trouble importing food, because the USA has decided to sanction and blockade them. This affects not only direct trade with the USA, but because of the way sanctions work when issued by the USA, any country that also itself does trade with the USA is at risk themselves to be sanctioned by the USA for trading with North Korea.
So, you have a situation where they can't grow enough domestically, and foreign powers are preventing them from importing the food they need. And you want to say it's their fault that they have food shortages?
Of note, nearing 100% of North Korea's foreign trade is with China. Of that, food imports constitute a sizeable portion.
Now, I do not know why they do not import more food (enough to meet all demand) from China; I do not know if China is not allowing it, or if North Korea is not trying it, or if North Korea can not afford it, or what have you. If you have information on this specifically, please provide me sources (and not speculation) so that I can learn.
North Korea could decide to stop alienating itself from the rest of the world with pathetic rocket antics.
Maybe that would help with the import problem.
You're moving the goalposts. The famine happened far before North Korea had nuclear missiles, and rocket tests were far less common decades ago.
I'm thinking about what North Korea can do today. Looking ahead.
The choice today is more rocket antics or less. One means more budget for food and less alienation, the other doesn't. The question is what North Korea does now.