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North Korea

North Korea defectors cite dwindling food rations, market reliance -study

cde.news desk · 1 min read
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epa02520047 (FILE) A file picture dated 27 July 2010 showing North Korean soldier stand guard during a ceremomy marking the 57th anniversary of the signing of the cease-fire agreement of the Korea war at the Military Demarcation Line in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) in the border village Panmunjom, South Korea. North Korea on 08 January 2011 renewed its call for unconditional talks with South Korea and proposed they be held within a month. "We formally propose an unconditional and early opening of the talks between the authorities of the North and the South," the North?s Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland said in a statement that was carried on the official Korean Central News Agency. The same statement said North Korea wanted to reopen offices for inter-Korean economic cooperation at a jointly North-South-run industrial park in the North Korean border city of Kaesong. They closed last year during a low point in relations. EPA/SONG KYEONG-SEOK / POOL *** Local Caption *** 00000402262627

The majority of North Koreans who resettled in South Korea over the last decade said they never received government rations in the isolated state and had to rely on an informal market to survive, a study issued by Seoul’s unification ministry showed.

The 280-page report on North Korea’s economic and social situation issued on Tuesday was based on interviews with more than 6,300 defectors between 2013 and 2022. The ministry began such surveys in 2010, but this is the first time results have been publicly released.

North Korea has faced serious food shortages in recent decades, including a famine in the 1990s, often exacerbated by natural disasters. Its economy has been hit by international sanctions, as well as slumping border trade during the pandemic.

More than 72% of defectors who arrived between 2016 and 2020 said they never received government food rations in North Korea, the study showed, compared with 62% of those who came before 2000.

About half of the 2016-20 arrivals said they did not receive any salaries or food from work, up from about a third before 2000.

via Reuters

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