North Korea's Food Production
While it is hard to evaluate exactly how much food North Korea produces, because it is a closed state, we can come to some conclusions about the production of food in North Korea according to how much food they are accepting in aid. According to Assessing the Food situation in North Korea, North Korea is accepting some food aid from countries such as South Korea and Japan instead of just ignoring the offers like the have done many times in the past (519). This can tell us a few things about the food production in North Korea. If North Korea is accepting some food from outside sources then they must be somewhat desperate to feed their people. According to Famine in North Korea sometimes even when aid is volunteered the government is reluctant to accept it and sometimes destroys things such as food that they are given (Haggard). The article does not explain why that the government does not accept the aid offered to it but i believe it may be because the government is too proud to admit that it needs help from an outside source because it wants to be almost completely self reliant and would rather let its people starve then admit that they need help.
This is an extremely dystopian aspect of North Korea. When a country's popoulation is starving it is usually unavoidable and they are willing to accept as much aid as they can so that the people will survive. In the case of North Korea though not accepting aid and destroying any of the food that is given to them should be unthinkable. This is dystopian just for that reason. The leaders of the country have at least some power to stop the starvation of millions but refuse it. There is no good reason for the refusal of aid and it should be accepted to at least keep the people alive.
This is an extremely dystopian aspect of North Korea. When a country's popoulation is starving it is usually unavoidable and they are willing to accept as much aid as they can so that the people will survive. In the case of North Korea though not accepting aid and destroying any of the food that is given to them should be unthinkable. This is dystopian just for that reason. The leaders of the country have at least some power to stop the starvation of millions but refuse it. There is no good reason for the refusal of aid and it should be accepted to at least keep the people alive.
The video to the left shows a couple of people that traveled to North Korea and were allowed to document some of their experiences. near the end of the video it shows them going to some type of banquet and they explain what they are eating. Although the video does not show how much a normal Korean citizen will eat in a given day it does give incite into some of the food that the people of the country eat on a regular basis.
