North Korean Famine Research Paper

The Effects of the North korean Famine on North Korea and on the Korean Peninsula

North Korea and its fanatically isolationist policy, it's equally extreme idea of Juche and how it's economic structure facilitated the North korean famine or “The Arduous march” which lasted from 1994 to 1998 which resulted in the deaths of over a million people.The Famine lead to much needed economic policy changes that would help prevent famines in the first place.

Preface:

North Korea came out of the aftermath of the Second World War.

Previously it was a colony of Imperial Japan and was subjected to forced labour and oppression.Politically, it became split between Communists in the north and

Democrats in the south. After being relinquished from Japan

North Korea as a country is the most isolationist country with little interaction with the world and how it considers war yet avoids it for various reasons because it would be mostly pointless and a waste of lives and resources However, a lot of its problems stem from its separation and would inevitably lead to the south taking over as the peninsula's powerhouse. International Relations Theory and the Second Korean War also shows graphs that visualize the comparability between the North and South such as;the economic development of each country in tandem and the military spending of both the countries In the first graph we are shown the countries started almost the same and how North Korea was somewhat better than the South in terms of the economy to be taken over by South Korea in an economic success. The second Graph shows the military spending of both North Korea and South Korea where the case was the same but instead of South Korea taking the lead, It was North Korea who took the lead in Military spending from its military first policy.

The famine was caused by a slew of things ranging from economic mismanagement to environmental neglect.The causes stem from the collapse of the Soviet Union as it was its largest supplier of food aid, fuel and most other commodities that north korea didn't have much of.North Korea has an ideology called Juche (주체) which practices ‘Self Reliance’ which isn't a viable option for the country, given that 20% of it's land is arable and yet is not very fertile. Farmers were put in communal farms where they had to plant and grow what they were told to. These farmers either had no interest or experience with the crops and would often grow and not yield as much crop as desired. In some cases a lot of forests were destroyed to make new land and crops were grown on hillsides which made the land unstable and inarable. The effects were catastrophic except to those in the very few and far between of the North Korean elite who lived under a system which prioritised them, the military and then the people. Under such conditions the elite had felt virtually none of the effects of the famine. The army was also prioritized and felt some effect of the famine but was fed on rations of foreign aid. The people however were fed only scraps and many had to resort to foraging and sifting through garbage for some sort of sustenance. This affected the most vulnerable of North korea's citizens, in which the Children and the Elderly were most affected. Many