Good Friends: Famine Worsens Along N. Korea’s East Coast, Regime Tries to Shief Pyongyang from Starvation

Good Friends Dispatch No. 136 is here: nkt136-eng1.pdf

Highlights:

Regime promotes “alternative foods,” generally made of grass;
Some local officials turning to traders to feed the starving; central government fires one local official for taking out a “food loan;”
Rising death toll among farmers in Kangwon and near Hamheung;
Situation in Sinuiju is desperate, but not yet in famine condition;
High absenteeism from munitions factory in Eundok County; workers are too weakened by hunger;
In Pyongyang, hard times but relatively little starvation. Few people are aware of famine conditions elsewhere in the country, but as word spreads, trust in the regime declines:

One high official in Pyongyang said, “Unless food is imported from abroad, by July and August, there will be an unprecedented amount of deaths, much more than those of the Arduous March (ê³ ë‚œì˜ í–‰êµ°). If we starve people to death again, Ideological warfare won’t work on our people however hard we try to emphasize it. People are already turning their backs against us. However, still, people are naÃ¯ve and do not disclose their feelings, but they will change soon. Mr. Koh Chang-hyun (49) said, “As time goes by, more and more people will not believe in the Party’s directions or policies because of their continued deception. Some people say that they are curious what the Party will say as 2012 comes while it is telling us our country we will become a strong country. They are laughing away at speeches to this effect at every lecture or public meeting.