North Korea faces economic ruin amid food and medicine shortages Justin McCurry in Tokyo 21 hrs ago
North Korea faces economic ruin amid food and medicine shortages
Justin McCurry in Tokyo 21 hrs ago
North Korea is facing one of the worst economic crises in its 73-year history, amid shortages of food and medicines and warnings of rising unemployment and homelessness.
The country’s economy has been battered by more than a year of border restrictions imposed after the coronavirus outbreak, flooding caused by natural disasters, and international sanctions imposed in response to the regime’s nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.
Last month, the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, called on ruling party members to wage another “arduous march” to stave off an economic crisis, which he likened to a 1990s famine in which up to three million people are thought to have died.
While groups monitoring the North say they have seen no evidence of an unfolding humanitarian disaster, observers with contacts inside the country believe worsening conditions are coinciding with a crackdown by a regime fearful of a repeat of the social upheaval that followed the famine.
“There are many obstacles and difficulties ahead of us, and so our struggle for carrying out the decisions of the eighth party congress would not be all plain sailing,” Kim told grassroots members of the ruling Korean Workers’ party, according to the state-run KCNA news agency.
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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/05/north-korea-economic-crisis-food-and-medicine-shortages-covid
More at the link.
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