USA & North Korea (43)

Some of your questions will be answered cat.
I have seen a lot of pictures smuggled out of N.Korea, children picking food crumbs in a market of the ground
This egomaniac spends all the money on the military and lets his people starve
Every four km there is a statue of him and daddy.
People have to bow to it and smile camera's catching them not doing this gets them in trouble
Google for info about N. Korea
How will it end?
Difficult to predict as N.Korea is situated in a spot difficult to get at without hurting the other countries

images of poverty in hermit state
Fri, December 1, 2017
There are strict limitations on foreign media visiting the secret state
PLAY SLIDESHOW
Bicycles appear to be the only method of transport in the industrial city of Chongjin
Propaganda posters on the outskirts of the city of Chongjin
People struggle with a cart carrying cabbage in Hamhung
People push bicycles along a street on the outskirts of Hamhung
A woman carrying cabbage rides past a beach in North Korea's eastern port city of Wonsan
Cyclists ride along a road empty of cars in Orang
A woman and child pull a cart loaded with wood along a road near Kilij
Only Communist Party loyalists are allowed to live in the capital Pyongyang and those in smaller towns and cities or rural areas are forced to eke out a living.

Soldiers have been ordered to steal crops from farmers’ fields to subsidize their meager diets and the poor health of a recent defector pointed to chronic malnourishment.

Conditions have improved since the Nineties when hundreds of thousands of North Koreans perished after a combination of bad weather, chronic agricultural mismanagement, the end of the Soviet Union’s food subsidies caused widespread famine.

North KoreaAFP/GETTY

People push a cart carrying cabbage in Hamhung on North Korea's northeast coast
The state’s Public Distribution System (PDS) of rationing collapsed and has never fully recovered its ability to feed the population.

But according the UN World Food Programme, 18 million of North Korea’s 25 million people are dependent on state rationing, and an equal number of people are estimated to suffer from food poverty with 41 per cent of the population considered to be undernourished.

There are fears the horrors of the famine - a period the country’s leaders refer to as the “Arduous March” - will return as trade sanctions imposed in response to Kim Jong-un’s nuclear missile test program begin to bite and food shortages worsen.

North KoreaAFP/GETTY

A man guides a cart along a track near Riwon on North Korea's northeast coast
North KoreaAFP/GETTY

The town of Kimchaek on North Korea's northeast coast
This year’s harvest was thought to have been particularly poor, according to a United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization report which showed rainfall between April and June was lower than the same period in 2001, when cereal production reached an unprecedented low.

The country’s poverty stands in stark contrast to the millions spent on Kim Jong-un’s missile program which sparked free outrage this week with the launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile into the Sea of Japan.

For history of Korea before its division, see History of Korea.
The history of North Korea began at the end of World War II in 1945. The surrender of Japan led to the division of Korea at the 38th parallel, with the Soviet Union occupying the north, and the United States occupying the south. The Soviet Union and the United States failed to agree on a way to unify the country, and in 1948 they established two separate governments – the Soviet-aligned Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the Western-aligned Republic of Korea – each claiming to be the legitimate government of all of Korea.

In 1950 the Korean War broke out. After much destruction, the war ended with a stalemate. The division at the 38th parallel was replaced by the Korean Demilitarized Zone. The tension between the two sides continued. Out of the rubble, North Korea built an industrialized command economy.

Kim Il-sung led North Korea until his death in 1994. He developed a pervasive personality cult and steered the country on an independent course in accordance with the principle of Juche (self-reliance). However, with natural disasters and the collapse of the Soviet Bloc in 1991, North Korea went into a severe economic crisis. Kim Il-sung's son, Kim Jong-il, succeeded him, and was in turn succeeded by his son, Kim Jong-un. Amid international alarm, North Korea developed nuclear missiles. In 2018, Kim Jong-un made a sudden peace overture towards South Korea and the United States.