How does one blame the US and South Korea for being unable to feed itself? Not very well

Yanji, China — The North Korean people are expressing doubt as to why the authorities have deemed South Korea and the U.S. responsible for the latest food crisis.

A source from Yangkang Province told DailyNK in a phone interview on May 1st, “At the Union of Democratic Women (UDW) conference, commemorating the founding of the Chosun People’s Army on April 25th, a speaker humiliated herself when she blamed South Korean President Lee Myung Bak [for the crisis].”

My favorite part

He added that “Now, when the authorities blame America for the lack of food, people ask in turn, ‘Is it America’s and South Chosun (Korea)’s responsibility to feed us?’ People lately have grown to dislike China, which has not aided us sufficiently, and yet is always emphasizing the China-North Korea relationship.”

Not even the Clinton campaign can spin this situation.

North Korean Human Rights transition into Korean pop culture took another step

The Aquariums of Pyongyang, by North Korean escapee Kang Cheol Hwan, gained fame as one of U.S. President George W. Bush’s favorite books. Mr. Bush is reported to have handed out copies of the book to staff and friends and invited Kang to the White House, three years ago, for a lengthy one-on-one chat.

Now, the story of Kang’s childhood in a North Korean punitive labor camp is scheduled to become a motion picture.

Kang says he was a victim of what human rights advocates describe as North Korea’s policy of “collective punishment.” He and his family were sent to the North’s infamous Yoduk labor camp in 1977, because of a suspected political offense by his grandfather.

Kang’s book describes the horrors he witnessed at Yoduk, including starvation, severe beatings and disease. He says it is long overdue for his story to be told on the big screen.

Next, Yodok Story, the Korean soap?

Time examines famine in North Korea

Nearly one million people starved to death when a murderous famine gripped North Korea in the 1990s. Now, the most backward, isolated country in the world may be about to see history repeat itself. According to diplomats, United Nations officials and a variety of non-government organizations, North Korea stands yet again on the brink of a major food shortage. “The prospect of hunger related deaths in the next few months is approaching certainty,” says Marcus Noland, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute and co-author of a just released study raising alarms about the prospect of renewed famine. In fact, one Seoul-based NGO, the Research Institute for North Korean Society, asserts that there have already been a handful of people in small, agricultural villages who have died from starvation.

My position has always been that food aid will only prolong the life of the regime and that the only way for change to happen is to allow the people to take matters into their own hands. However, with the prospect of another famine and the North Korean government seemingly not too worried about it, perhaps food aid is an appropriate option.

Read on…