Comments | ontd_political: Millions of North Korean Children Go Hungry

the_glow_worm in ontd_political

Millions of North Korean Children Go Hungry

Jun 12, 2012 23:58

PYONGYANG, North Korea - Millions of North Korean children are not getting the food, medicine or health care they need to develop physically or mentally, leaving many stunted and malnourished, the United Nations said Tuesday.

Nearly a third of children under age 5 show signs of stunting, particularly in rural areas where food is scarce, and ( Read more... )

south korea, food, korea, hunger, north korea

Comments 32

fenris_lorsrai June 13 2012, 15:39:29 UTC

Since people really can't examine the people in the country close up, I suspect its probably even worse. Heavy reliance on corn is a set up for widespread pellagra One of the big symptoms is diarrhea along with physical wasting. so the water may actually be FINE, its the reliance on corn. (corn CAN be fine... if prepared correctly. otherwise the niacin can't be digested, resulting in pellagra)

Rice and barley don't generally result in that, but the people in corn growing regions probably have issues with pellagra on top of starving.

cpsings4him June 13 2012, 16:05:53 UTC

Wow! I didn't even know that was a thing.

mrasaki June 13 2012, 21:10:06 UTC

Unfortunately I can understand where S. Korea is coming from. They (and other countries) gave aid before and N. Korea just took it without giving anything in return in terms of diplomatic overtures, and most of the aid was diverted to feed the fat cats at the top, NOT the people who most needed it. Obviously this is not a situation they want to repeat again, because doing it again just encourages an already dangerously unreasonable and uncaring regime to continue whatever it wants to do.

Unfortunately it means that families and relatives of people outside N. Korea also suffer, but I really don't know what else the UN or anyone else can do, besides the N. Korean regime suddenly getting a clue. I'd been hoping that Kim Jong-Un's ascension would mean just that, but sadly so far little evidence of it has been seen so far.

yamamanama June 13 2012, 21:28:18 UTC

I don't think anything good will happen as long as there's a Kim on the throne.

tabaqui June 14 2012, 01:03:35 UTC

Christ. Depressing as hell, and no 'fix' unless someone wants to actually go to war with them.

It sucks that China is their ally but won't step in and say 'hey, stop starving your people to death'.

How fucking horrifying for these poor people.

azetburcaptain June 14 2012, 03:18:22 UTC

South Korea has its own problems... it's not a perfect country and it is not the democratic haven that some of the Western media describes.

I don't trust the South Korean govt to even try and do something about the problem, not now. Not ever. Not that this isn't horrible. It is. And there isn't much that ROK's government can do. Someday, maybe the DPRK will have a revolution which will change things for the better.

But even so, we must remember that the two countries are still at war. That's a huge part of this too.