Diplomat skeptical of North’s food shortage claims

[xchrom]

http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2936871

A Dutch diplomat recently observed large-scale grain farming in North Korea and also saw North Korean children so starved that they were losing the color in their hair.

The two conflicting images provided by Paul Menkveld, Dutch ambassador to Seoul, led him to doubt the authenticity of the country’s claim of a worse-than-usual food shortage, he said. Menkveld and several other ambassadors to Seoul, all accredited to both Koreas, gave the accounts of their recent trips to the North during a diplomatic seminar in Seoul on Friday.

Menkveld went to the North on May 20 and returned to Seoul on May 25 in a field trip arranged to see projects co-financed by the Netherlands.

He said that while traveling from Pyongyang to Wonsan, he saw “everywhere” there were an “enormous amount of agriculture” projects underway on “square meters of land for rice, maize potatoes.” He said he saw “a lot of people working in the fields.”

[Poll_Blind]

1. I'm a little confused by the reception the Dutch diplomat intended for their commentary.

I read/skimmed the article, maybe I skimmed too much? Anyway, I didn't see the other shoe dropping which is "Well, yes, North Korea may not have a food shortage on some technical level, if all the grown material was actually dispensed to its citizens. But that's not happening. And it's not happening because Kim Jong-il is a fucking madman."

I was sort of expecting something like that, somewhere in the article. I didn't see it. Maybe he didn't include something along those lines or maybe I just skipped over it unintentionally. AFAIK, it's not like NK doesn't have the ability to provide for all citizens, it's that their leader is fucking insane.

After the "Arab Spring", it would be really nice to see Kim Jong-il's head on a stick and people finally getting enough food to eat. I seriously don't think the citizens have enough physical strength to do it: The man and his father have basically kept them on the leash of starvation for decades.

PB

[xchrom]

3. i can only guess they are being polite -- however

i do think you are supposed to infer what you did -- at least i did too.

[joshguitar]

5. arab spring

Im with you on sentiment, but there is no way NK will have a homegrown "arab spring" style revolution. At least not as long as the citizens are innoculated with misinformation from birth on. If you look into testimonials from defectors, and from some of the journalism that has accidentally or miraculously made it out...

They actually love their leader. wholly and completely.

its even more amazing and contradictory than meeting a lower-middle class republican. These people are so blinded by fervor and faith that they distort reality

[Turbineguy]

2. Perhaps all this food production

is just to feed the Army.

[jwirr]

4. Or to trade for military supplies.