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  • CHANNEL4 FILMS: CHILDREN OF THE SECRET STATE 3 OF 3

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CHANNEL4 FILMS: CHILDREN OF THE SECRET STATE 3 OF 3

CHANNEL4 FILMS: CHILDREN OF THE SECRET STATE PART 3 OF 3 Despite 2 million people starving to death in the 1990s in an avoidable famine, Kim Jong-il is once again forcing his people to subsist on the promise of handouts that never come. The World Food Programme warns that a famine is looming once again, yet the regime is ordering all aid agencies out of the country saying that it is now able to support its own people without international help. The consequences for the North Korean people could be catastrophic. After the 1990s famine, Kim Jong-il introduced semi-free market reforms, which allowed people to buy and sell food and goods to each. However food prices soared higher than wages, and as a result only the elite sections of society – government officials, security forces and the leadership of the army could eat. The average family can only afford to buy 4kg of the cheapest grain. North Koreans are surviving on less than half the internationally recommended minimum of 550-590 kg of grain a day. Kim Jong-il has always used the nuclear threat to blackmail the international community into providing food donations. With the protracted six-party talks on the nuclear threat stalemated, many of the larger foreign donors are withholding their usual food offers. To date, only 270,000 of the 500,000 tonnes of food has arrived this year. Aid agencies have now insisted that they will only supply donations if they are able to distribute it themselves. This may now be a futile decision since North Korea has formally told the United Nations it no longer needs food aid, despite reports of widespread malnutrition.

Daily Motion | July 17, 2007Watch more videos from Daily Motion

Tags:. .eat. .date. .providing. .forcing. .forces











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