SEOUL, Feb. 13 (UPI) -- For North Korea, rice is more than a grain. The Stalinist nation has long stressed the importance of rice as the main staple to feed its people who carry out the cause of the juche- (self-reliance)-oriented revolution under the slogan -- "Rice is Communism."
North Korea's founding leader, Kim Il Sung, had pledged to build a "people's paradise" in which "all the people lead happy lives in tile-roofed houses with sufficient with steamy rice and meat soup." However, the North Korean climate and soil are not particularly fit for rice growing and crops were meager
moncler Pas Cher, leading to mass starvation since the mid-1990s.
With arable fields accounting for less than 17 percent of its territory, the North can hardly produce enough grain to feed is 22 million citizens. Of this farmland, only 30 percent is rice paddies.
Farming has also been frequently affected by inclement weather. Still worse, under the name of "juche farming," North Koreans cut down trees on hills to make rice paddies in the 1960s and 1970s. Due to this, however, the mountain slopes were no longer able to hold water required for farming, especially during rains.
North Korean agricultural experts, however, were forced to press forward "juche farming" because it was introduced by "Great Leader" Kim.
Three consecutive years of floods from 1995-97 buried those hill paddies while mud from the treeless hills buried most of the richer rice paddies in the valleys and plains. North Korean defectors say it took four years to get rid of the mud from the fields. Since the "worst-ever" flood in 1995, up to 2 million people have reportedly died in the country.
The acute food shortages have forced the state, led by Kim Jong Il since the 1994 death of his father
Moncler Acheter, to swallow its pride of juche and seek outside food aid.
Relief workers said this week North Koreans were facing new food shortages that could be as bad as 1996 and 1997, the peak of the near-famine conditions of the past 10 years. About 6.5 million North Koreans will not receive food rations in February and March, the World Food Program warned
Acheter Doudoune Moncler, calling for urgent international assistance to help feed the country's hungriest people.
"We are scraping the bottom of the barrel," Masood Hyder, WFP representative for the communist country, said at a news conference. "Over 4 million core beneficiaries -- the most vulnerable children
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The WFP is seeking 485,000 tons of food in 2004 for North Korea but has secured pledges for only 140,000 tons to date and only a fraction of that has arrived in the North.
"International aid to North Korea is showing a constant decrease for the consecutive two years now after North Korean nuclear (program) became an issue," an official at the Unification Ministry told United Press International.
One cause for the sharp decline was Japan, a major donor
moncler herren, suspended aid in 2001 to protest North Korea's kidnapping of its citizens
www.daunenjackedeutschland.com, he said. Japan is concerned humanitarian food aid may be diverted to the North's 1.1 million-strong military, one of the largest in the world.
South Korea's top intelligence agency has predicted the North will see a food shortage of about 2 million tons in 2004, with food demand and supply estimated at 6.39 million tons and 4.25 million tons, respectively.
After decades-long food shortages, North Korea recently launched a nationwide campaign to produce more potato, a major shift from rice. A two-day meeting of "forerunners" in potato farming, the first of its kind in the country, was held earlier this month.
In a speech, Agriculture Minister Ri Ju O called for the pioneer potato growers to resolve the country's food shortage. Ri said all potato growers should exert their best efforts to "decisively" increase potato production as their leader Kim Jong Il desires.
"Leader Kim Jong Il
www.jackenoutletau.com, with deep penetration into the country's agricultural situation and the universal trend of agricultural development
Moncler doudoune, gave field guidance to Taehongdan County in Ryanggang Province, a potato producer, and took measures to solve the food problem by producing potato, a high-yield crop, extensively," the state-run Central News Agency said.
Under the slogan of a "revolution in potato farming" initiated by Kim, North Korea established a large-scale cooperative farm in vast areas in Taehongdan, bordering China. North Korea has mobilized workers for potato farming there.
According to the North's media, Kim Jong Il sent handwritten letters to them to praise their resolve to "spend the rest of their lives growing potato" in the belt. The group relocation seems to be the North's last-ditch efforts to boost food output.
That prospect, however, remains dim unless Pyongyang overhauls its centralized management system.
"The success of programs to restructure the agricultural sector and develop high-yield seeds requires foreign investment and technological advice from outside
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