North Korea Cuts Food Rations

Before you read the story I link below, I strongly recommend you read Dr. Andrei Lankov’s overview of the North Korean food distribution and rationing system. I disagree with some of Dr. Lankov’s policy recommendations, but he is an invaluable source of knowledge about the North Korean government, such as it was when he was there, at least. The essential point to take from his article is that food rations have been a practical non-entity for everyone except the elite ever since the famine.

Today, Yonhap reported that North Korea has announced that it is cutting food rations to 250 grams per person per day. This follows closely on the reports that North Korea has also increased taxes, which I blogged about on this site and here, on NKZone. What this suggests is that the regime may be in serious economic trouble, given that until now, it has always been able to shift the burden of suffering onto the “hostile” and “wavering” classes.

Particularly at a time when reports of dissent are reaching the outside world and have the potential to circulate within North Korea itself, a public announcement of a long-term ration cut is a sign of desperation.

UPDATE: BBC has picked up the story, noting that 250 grams is half of what the World Food Program says a person needs to survive. They suggest that this may be the government’s way of shifting economic incentives toward the private market, although no one can really say why they did this. They also report that this will create a severe economic burden for many people, particularly city dwellers. The report fits with Dr. Lankov’s model, which is that the rural population won’t miss rations it hasn’t had for a long time in any event. It could also just as well fit with my own speculation that the regime is now so economically desperate that it is spreading the misery even to the fringes of the core class, which has traditionally made up most of the urban population.

Interestingly, the BBC report notes that the North Korean harvest was the best in ten years, yet people are still getting hungrier than they were in the past several years. This suggests less aid, less efficient distribution, or both.