North Korea has been receiving financial support from the United Nations as well as food supplies. Many people would claim that North Korea has an ongoing famine due to the floods they would continuously experience throughout the years, damaging the soil. Others would argue and say that the famine happened because North Korea is a communist country and the military is purposefully starving their people. Regardless of these arguments, the fact still remains, the people of North Korea are dying rapidly due to malnutrition. The only solution feasible to this problem would be to send agricultural scientists over to North Korea and help restore the damaged soil, so that it may grow healthy crops once again. North Korea is facing a dangerous famine …show more content…
The reason for this, is because it will cost millions of dollars to try and restore even a portion of the land in North Korea. According to Phil McKenna, “North Korean scientists told the delegates that they would like to reforest hillsides with trees, including the Japanese chestnut, black chokeberry, and Korean pine, that could both stabilize the soil and provide edible fruits and seeds. But funding for such reforestation appears tight”(McKenna 17). The solution is possible, however, it will cost too much to fix. There have been ideas of trying to restore everything back to the way it used to be, but there are insufficient funds to do so. It is cheaper to send North Korea supplies of food and some money, rather than doing something that will benefit all of North Korea. Not to mention the fact this solution is short-term and does not benefit North Korea as much as the previous solution would. Money seems to be the only problem with this solution, “Even if the nurseries were running at full capacity, North Korea would still have a long road ahead of it. Bowers estimates that reforesting even half the country would cost around $46 billion, an amount that exceeds the nation’s annual gross domestic product by $6 billion”(McKenna 17). If Kim Jong-Un were willing to provide their own money into this solution, there would be better soil and crops in North Korea. This solution is not an easy one to overcome, however, it will be worth every penny in the
The northern border is known as the DMZ (demilitarized zone) it is the most heavily armed border in the world. At 2.5 miles wide and 150-miles long the heavily mined and guarded area has served as a buffer zone since the cease fire in 1953.(3) The united States helps to guard the DMZ and protect the ROK with approximately 30,000 troops and an arsenal of military equipment. The country of South Korea is unable to maintain their own Nuclear weapons and relies on the US Militaries nuclear weapons program to match North Koreas Nuclear weapons program. Although the ROK army is well equipped and well trained it lacks the sheer numbers and nuclear capabilities to match North Korea. Therefore the ROK relies heavily on the United States military assistance. However with the ROK’s consistent progression and strong economy it’s only a matter of time before the ROK will no longer need the help of the USA. (4)
Understanding how North Korea as a country defines itself in a changing world. Where do they derive their customs and practices, political standings and military power? Define North Korea’s history leading into the modern age and define its culture and characteristics and how they interact with the world today. Understanding a subject as broad as the term culture begins where the culture began with the birth of civilization and the people that influenced it. There are many factors that play a role in the shaping of a nation none so much as turmoil and conflict and the Korean peninsula saw its fair share for the better part of a millennia. A complete statistical breakdown of North Korea shows a struggling nation that strongly depends on
North Korea is a communist country located west of the pacific ocean, bordering China, Russia, and South Korea. Kim Jong-un is the prime leader in North Korea and successor of the ‘Kim’ Dynasty. He strives to hold a disciplined country, and come across as a strong nation internationally. The ‘Kim’ Dynasty has been able to keep their iron fist in north korea since 1948. To remain in control, North Korea severely limits and restricts expression, movement, and information denying it’s citizens the basic freedoms of modern civilization and forcing them to live as slaves to the regime.
By the 1980’s North Korea was in a state of degradation, until Russia collapsed in 1991 and the socialist state ceased to function. In 1994, with all these issues, Kim Il-sung died. Kim Jong-Il inherited a country on the brink of disaster, in reaction, Jong-Il instituted a policy that gave military and elite families even more privilege hoping to tighten loyalty from the top then trickle it down to the lower tiers. However, due to the economic situation under Il-sung, Jong-Il’s attempt to pacify loyalist met opposition from a severe famine in the mid to late 1990s. During this period, 5% of the population died of starvation, with the rest of the population starving to the point an entire generation’s growth was stunted. Economic mismanagement affected the military by lowering the height at weight requirement for soldiers. At its peak, the famine caused many North Koreans to defect to other countries. “In Barbara Demick’s book “Nothing to Envy”, a North Korean doctor tells of how even she became desperately hungry. After fleeing to China, she discovered a bowl of food left out for a dog. Upon examining the white rice and generous chunks of meat, she concluded that “dogs in China ate better than doctors in North Korea.”” (History of North
However, due to poor soil and lots of floods, farming is a hard job to do in North Korea and because of this fact, many of the nation’s people live in poverty because of the focus on having a lot of agricultural workers, but the Kim family continues to maintain their power but Kim Jong Un maintains his power differently than his grandfather and that is why he is able to keep his power.
North Korea is a country that is ruled by a dictator and has a communist government. A communist government rules all the land and gives the same amount of money and supplies to all the people in the country. “Daily Necessities were obtained from the Public Distribution System (PDS)” (95,Hassig). The PDS shut down in 1995 because foreign aid was cut off expect for Pyongyang, the capital city. In rural areas, a lot of the children were born as “no-count” meaning that when they were born they weren’t counted as part of the existing society and didn’t have supplies given to them. North Korea was once a unified country with South Korea until September 9, 1948 when it became a separate country. From 1910 to 1945 Japan had ruled
To begin with, compared with more affluent countries in its region, such as South Korea and Japan, North Korea actually has a higher self-sufficient ratio for grain consumption in a normal year. South Korea and Japan rely on imports from more than half of their grain where
This is a country led by an individual who doesn’t have the country and its people’s best interests at heart. What he says goes, and this is a dangerous system as the rewards are low but risks high for society and the country as a cohesive unit. “Deadly attack dogs, kidnappings, public executions, starvation, thought-control, religious persecution and forced marriages. A new United Nations report reveals in grim detail how the North Korean government terrorizes its own people. It also declares the country’s young dictator, Kim Jong, guilty of crimes against humanity” (Smith). Kim Jong is a ruthless dictator who uses any means possible of oppression to subdue his people. The international community took a while to, but finally started to take action and labeled him as a criminal against
International relief agencies and other recent visitors to North Korea such as US Representative Tony Hall report increasingly widespread and obvious pre-famine indicators: families eating grass, weed and bark, orphans whose growth has been stunted by hunger and diarrhea, and children going bald for lack of nutrition. Food supplies have already stopped arriving at many nurseries and kindergartens, where many small children and babies are dying of malnutrition. The most severe threat of mass starvation is believed to exist in the northern and northeastern sections of the country, where relief workers have been granted access in March. Officials from the UN World Program (WFT) have just dispatched an assessment team to survey these areas and expect to release an assessment team to survey these areas and expect to release a report on condition there in the coming week (2).
North Korea is a dangerous place to live, where you aren't allowed to leave. In North Korea the citizens are living in malnourishment, poverty and living under a totalitarian dictatorship lead by Kim Jung Un. I am very interested about North Korea Because we don't know a lot about North Korea. North Korea does not release hardly any information about themselves to other nations, which i think makes them an interesting topic to research. I already knew a little bit about North Korea because of news coverage but I didn't know everything that I learned after researching them more in depth. I knew that North Korea had some of the worth human
During the Cold war, in the 1950’s, Korea was dealing with political conflicts and tensions along the 38th parallel border. Although Korea became independent, the Soviet Union took control of North Korea while the United States took control of South Korea; dividing the country into two halves. The Korean war began after North Korea invaded South Korea by crossing the 38th parallel. As Stueck states, “...The North Korean attack was not seen as a decisive act in an ongoing civil war but as a dangerous move that threatened world peace and stability” (Stueck 82). The leaders Kim II-Sung, of North Korea, and President Syngman Rhee, of South Korea, were eager to attack each other. The leaders wanted to gain unification through the war. North Korea's
The North Korean citizens have had their own trouble even surviving day to day. Kim Jong Un would rather feed his growing army than his own people, whom he’s supposed to rule over and take care of. Not only that but while the country is in famine he’d rather spend money building nuclear missiles. The people in North Korea don’t have many freedoms, they’re constantly monitored
The KWP is kept in power largely thanks to a combination of international concern for North Korean citizens and the patronage of the Chinese government, which exports large quantities of food to North Korea in return for KWP assistance in certain areas. Until the 1990's, North Korea also received significant quantities of
North Korea’s health care is so bad that if south Korea did not exist the whole population would most likely be dead. One cannot have a society filled with dead people. Yes they claim to have free healthcare but it is so corrupt, most people must pay to receive proper attention. Through this many dollars are lost to doctors that desire high payment for services. The state also controls all imports, exports and major public industries. These industries run on lies and corruption which would inevitably fall apart leaving the nation with only what is within its borders. It cannot survive off war torn lands, and sick people.
The worst famine in recorded history combined with mass killings of innocent people occurred in Cambodia as the result of the Khmer Rouge’s reign. Stripping their citizens of all modern technologies and practices, as well as killing all ethnic minorities and intellectuals destroyed Cambodian culture. Innocent people were killed on the basis that they may possibly be enemies of the state, although rarely was there evidence proving these millions of Cambodians were enemies at all. From 1975 to 1979 the Khmer Rouge was in power in Cambodia, and in that time around twenty percent of Cambodians died in their extreme communist society. Before the Khmer Rouge, Cambodia was becoming increasingly unstable after suffering war and an unstable