Talk:North Korean famine

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Map of Korea This article is within the scope of WikiProject Korea (North Korea), a project to build and improve articles related to Korea. We invite you to join the project and contribute to the discussion.
Start This article has been rated as Start-Class on the quality scale. Please help us improve this article.
??? This article has not yet been assigned a rating on the importance scale.
It is requested that an image of scenes of flooding, dead crops, empty food storehouses, and maybe emaciated North Koreans. Also perhaps a photo of Kim Jong Il be included in this article to improve its quality, if possible.

Contents

[edit] POV issues

This seems to be very biased against North Korea, and reads like a story more than an article. Can someone who knows more help clean it up? (ESkog)(Talk) 02:48, 26 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Shultz IV's commentary

Because several editors have pointed out the lack of references and obvious bias in the essay by Shultz IV, I've moved his content here for now. I've replaced the article page with content from North Korea, Kim Jong-il, and Famine articles, to serve as a stub.

Shultz IV, please re-add any part of the below after you add references and subtract the commentary. thanks. Appleby 15:39, 26 April 2006 (UTC)

{{references}} {{NPOV}}

The North Korean famine of the 1990s started when Kim Il-sung, an amateur in the ways of farming, ordered more rice to be grown in the hills in many parts of North Korea. He also ordered for trees to be cut down in order to give more room to grow rice.

[edit] Realizations

Farmers and agricultural specialists who knew better realized immediately that the lack of trees and natural vegetation would allow the rainwaters to progress faster towards the streams & rivers, causing them to receive more than they can take downstream, thus allowing them to overflow their banks! This way, floods would occur and the disaster wouldn't only be that, but also famine resulting from drowning the crops.

However, no one would dare challenge the Great Leader! Whoever thought of challenging him feared getting sent to a re-education camp. (Like the Yodok Concentration Camp, for example.) Therefore, they had no choice but to obey his orders.

[edit] The beginning of the disaster

Sure enough, the floods came and the famine started to sweep the nation. However, North Korean media was still forced to lionize the leaders and their accomplishments, and was completely disallowed from reporting negative happenings in their own country. Nevertheless, Kim Il-sung eventually found out about it. He realized that the only way he would save the country is through Reunification. He started the process moving, but in the wee hours of July 8, 1994, he got in an animated argument with Kim Jong-il, and suddenly collapsed due to a heart attack. If it hadn't have been for that (i.e. if Kim Il-sung checked up on his health earlier), Korea may have been reunified today, with millions of lives saved.

[edit] The "Arduous March"

Unfortunately, Kim Il-sung's death halted the reunification process and so the famine was allowed to take its course. Flooding was engulfing significant portions of the nation, and so the crops were not allowed to grow. Due to their ideology of "self-reliance", they would not buy food from any neighboring countries nor ask for help in the get-go. As a result, 200,000-1.5 million North Koreans are estimated to have died in what they call the "Arduous March". The Northern provinces of North Korea, that is, North Pyongan, Chagang, Yanggang, and North Hamgyong suffered the most. Pyongyang and all provinces to the south of the capital were spared the brunt of the disaster.

[edit] The Call for Disaster Relief

Eventually, they did call the world for disaster relief, and so the Red Cross and the World Food Programme arrived to give assistance. At first, a great portion of the donated food and resources were diverted to their military due to their so called "Military First" policy and the fact that giving them more food & resources would help maintain their loyalty better. However, the aid organizations eventually found out and ensured that the donations only went to where they needed to go.

[edit] Aftermath

There was still a shortage of food in some places, and the living conditions worsened as well. Thus, some North Koreans fled the country across the border, often across the Yalu and Tumen Rivers to find more food and a better life. Many stayed in China and even stay in hiding to this day. Many others made the trek to Shenyang and Beijing to South Korean diplomatic compounds to request asylum.

The Communist regime of North Korea is said to have lost the Mandate of Heaven. South Koreans agree, as well as many people around the world. North Koreans may agree also, although they are not free to say so.

[edit] WHAT

There was no "aftermath", people, because it didn't end. Actually it is potentially worse than ever!

Sometimes Wikipedia is a total joke. Articles about some unimportant people are longer than the fate of millions right now. --84.234.60.154 (talk) 08:21, 29 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] THIS SHOULD BE ONE OF HOTTEST EDITED ARTICLES RIGHT NOW

I can't belive it is TOTALLY IGNORED. --84.234.60.154 (talk) 20:41, 7 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] To whoever who would make a real article

Pleace use external links I provided while re-writting this joke of an article. --84.234.60.154 (talk) 22:05, 7 May 2008 (UTC)

It appears you, 84.234.60.154 (talk), are the best editor to improve this article. You are not prevented from doing the text editing and thinking necessary to make the article say what it should. Templates are a form of complaint, not contribution. Just do it. -- Yellowdesk (talk) 02:51, 9 May 2008 (UTC)