Publication

This report analyzes the North Korean food crisis, which began in 1994 and evolved into a major famine with high death rates. The report considers the causes of the famine, the central government’s response to it and the popular reaction to the government’s inability to stem the steady collapse of the old system. The author explains that the international humanitarian aid response to the famine has had the unintended affect of weakening the central government’s control over society and has stimulated irrevocable changes in the economy.