Corn is already worth its weight in gold: a new famine begins in the DPRK

About ten days ago, the media reported that the DPRK would not take part in the Tokyo Olympics this summer in order to protect its athletes from contracting coronavirus infection.

This indirectly confirms the information that quarantine measures led to hunger in the country. Now diplomats from different countries, including the families of Russian embassy workers, are leaving it en masse. There is no even relatively accurate information about the spread of the coronavirus in the DPRK. Although Korean propaganda claims that DPRK doctors have conducted 21.6 thousand PCR tests for coronavirus since the beginning of the pandemic, they were all negative, and therefore there is still not a single case of infection in the DPRK...

However, this fact did not save the country from a new shock: the BBC reports that the leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-un, made a truly sensational statement under the conditions of an authoritarian regime: speaking at a party conference. Kim urged citizens to prepare for a severe crisis, comparing the situation to the famine that broke out in the mid-1990s, which was called the "Difficult March" - then, according to various estimates, from 600 thousand to 2 million people. The speech of the North Korean leader took place against the background of statements by international human rights activists that the DPRK is already experiencing an acute shortage of food and economic instability.

For example, the price of one kilogram of corn, which is the staple food for North Korean farmers, has already reached the level of their monthly wages. Moreover, human rights activists argue that food products from neighboring China have not been imported to the DPRK for about two months. UN representatives report cases of starvation and remind that back in 2019 they warned of an imminent famine threatening 10 million North Koreans due to a massive drought.

It is precisely the most desperate situation that develops in the areas bordering with China, where, due to anti-pandemic restrictions, the channels of smuggling, which helped the residents there to survive, were completely blocked. In addition, the situation is influenced by the harsh international sanctions adopted against the DPRK.

And despite all this, North Korea continues its militaristic games, launching a new and insanely expensive submarine...