A Smaller Army, in More Ways Than One

Chronic food shortages will considerably reduce North Korea’s pool of military recruits in the coming years, with nearly a quarter of young adults unfit for service due to malnutrition-related mental disabilities, a U.S. intelligence report said. [Yonhap]

Malnutrition may also be taking an intellectual toll on North Koreans:

The famine of the 1990s has caused severe cognitive deficiencies among young North Koreans, said the report by the National Intelligence Council that used studies from several U.S. intelligence agencies.

I doubt don’t that the misrule of the Kims will also take a severe toll on the North Korean people morally and psychologically as well. It will take generations for North Korea to recover from this era.