The people of the world’s most secretive nation are again at risk of starvation, according to the United Nations.
Floods have again devastated North Korea. UN officials said there was urgent need for aid after visiting parts of the largely agrarian society’s flood-hit plains.
North Korea’s state media said that at least 119 people had died in the flooding and tens of thousands have been left homeless. North Korea already suffers from chronic food shortages, but the floods are understood to have hit low-lying farmland regions where grain and rice is grown. In addition, the flooding has ruined infrastructure and machinery, including roads and rail lines – vital in transporting the meagre locally grown produce. In New York, the UN has confirmed that the North Korean government, now headed by Kim Jong-un, has formally requested aid in the form of fuel and food.
Some international aid groups have already begun gathering supplies and donations and the Red Cross said it would allocate more than €180,000 for flood victims.
Recent images from Anju taken by state news agency KCNA showed houses underwater, flooded agricultural land and people sheltering in the upper stories of buildings.
The floods – which followed a severe drought earlier this year – have sparked fresh concern over North Korea’s struggle to feed its people. The impoverished nation, which still boasts a million man army, relies on food aid because it cannot grow enough food to feed its people. Famine in the mid-1990s is believed to have killed hundreds of thousands of people.
A UN report released last month estimated that two-thirds of North Korea’s 24 million population suffer from a chronic shortage of food.
North Korea seems to be emerging from the shadows. It is early days yet, but since Kim Jong-un took over the helm, there have been very small, yet promising developments.
It is understood that North Korea is now allowing the screening of Disney Cartoons, and Disney characters have appeared in ceremonies and dances. In addition, it is screening the unthinkable – Rocky, the movie. It might seem ridiculous to us, but to a nation that has lied to its people for 50 years, the image of an all-American pounding and beating his Russia rival is a big thing in this communist nation.
Since Kim Jong-un took over from his father, the rhetoric and sabre rattling against the democratic South has been reduced greatly – another small sign that the country might be seeking redemption.
Could it be that one of the countries that was branded as being part of the Axis of Evil, is trying to change its ways? The people of Korea are not to blame. They are lied to and they do not even know what is going on in the world outside their borders. They are starving. They need help. If their new leader really is trying to bring the country out of the dark, they deserve all the help we can give them.