North Korean Misery Continues

North Korea continues to suffer the ravages inflicted by man and nature. Floods have caused serious damage, killing at least 300, and wiping out crops.

South Korea is sending assistance to the North, but part of the problem for the North is that their command economy simply has mismanaged and crushed the economic capacity to feed their country without massive infusions of assistance from outside. Sadly, reports like this one do not mention the devastation and destruction inflicted by Kim-Il Jung and his misguided economic policies:

Seoul - South Korea will send emergency aid to its poorer northern neighbour after floods left hundreds of North Koreans dead or missing, damaged thousands of buildings and displaced more than 300 000 people, a report said on Thursday.

North Korea, which has suffered chronic food shortages for years, said floods have ravaged crops in its agricultural bread basket and left more than 11 percent of its paddy and maize fields submerged, buried or swept away.

An expert on the North's agricultural economy said the state will be hit hard by the losses but he does not think it will slide back into famine.

It wont slide back into famine because of the goodwill of other countries, like South Korea and the US, who will provide food and humanitarian assistance, even as the North Korean government devotes far too much of its resources on weapons programs and nothing towards meeting the basic needs of their citizens. The IHT at least refers to the mismanagement of the economy leading to prior famines.