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From The Times
May 16, 2008

North Korea may be hit by a new famine

Leo Lewis in Tokyo

Devastating floods, surging international food prices and a collapse of diplomacy with Seoul threaten to plunge North Korea into a famine that may claim 300,000 lives, aid groups say.

Several organisations have given warning that there is a risk of outright famine in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea – the bleak Stalinist dictatorship of Kim Jong Il.

The United Nations World Food Programme estimates that 6.5 million people are short of food in the country and predicts a doubling of its annual food deficit from 2007 to 1.83 million tonnes this year.

For the 23 million people living behind its paranoid borders the alert marks a terrifying anniversary.

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It is now a decade since famine killed more than one million North Koreans and those who survived it recognise the signs of looming disaster: the growing need, for example, to water down rice into gruel to make it go farther.

Give them whatever they need in return for the destruction of their nuclear capabilities and dismantling of their fascist state.

Pie in the sky, I suppose.

leila, manchester, uk

Virtually every other country where there is a serious food deficit deserves help long before North Korea.
Their is a home made shortage, caused by total misgovernment and putting funds for the armed services before food for their people.

Gunther Steinberg, Portola Valley, CA, United States

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