North Korea facing food crisis, cuts rations for soldiers.

 

A North Korean boy in a farm field damaged by a storm. Reuters/Fox News.

North Korea is facing a major food crisis with the government cutting rations for soldiers. Fox News. The reduction in food rations has not happened since 2000. The government also held an urgent meeting on food supplies on February 6th. There are claims that North Korea's food stores have fallen below what is required to allow people to survive. North Korea has a long history of famines due to natural disasters. North Korea is also under major sanctions due to their nuclear weapons program and what trade they did have was cut off in an effort to prevent the Coronavirus spreading in the country. 

My Comment:

This is not a good situation. North Korea has a long history of starvation and it looks like there might be another round right now. This is bad news for everyone because North Korea tends to cause problems when they are facing starvation, which is somewhat understandable. 

To be fair, it's possible that the South Korean report about soldiers being put on reduced rations isn't even true. South Korea noted that they could be wrong about the report. But there are other indications that North Korea is facing starvation. They have long had agricultural problems and they have not really opened up trade that much since they sealed the country off during the pandemic. 

If the reports about them reducing rations for soldiers is true it's probably a bad sign. For a despotic regime like North Korea there is a need for soldiers to keep order. And there is always a chance that if the soldiers aren't fed properly that they will revolt and replace the Kim regime. Reducing their rations is probably the last thing you would want to do which means that North Korea is out of options. 

In the past when North Korea faced famine they resorted to saber rattling. They do this to try and extract foreign aid to help feed their country. It has been largely successful in the past and there is a decent chance that it would work again. 

It is very possible we might see some major saber rattling from North Korea soon. They have already been launching missiles into the ocean but I am expecting something a bit more severe. It has been a very long time since North Korea has tested a nuclear weapon and it's very possible that they may do so again if things don't turn around. 

I do think that sanctions in general aren't working in North Korea or anywhere else. Sanctions seem to do nothing to actually change the policies of these countries. Indeed, the sanctions against Russia seems to have helped the country. If sanctions against North Korea were eased they might have a better chance at feeding their people. But given the fact that they are so isolationist perhaps it wouldn't matter.