North Korea cannot feed its people and could face another famine like the one that killed up to 3 million unless it changes its "regressive" food policies, a U.S. rights group warned Thursday.
The communist state, which relied on foreign handouts for a decade to feed its 23 million people, decided last year to reject international aid, resume full-scale state distribution of food and ban the private sale of grain, saying it could feed itself with good harvests.
Having undergone one famine and then experienced just the flimsiest recovery, can the North Koreans endure another round of famine? Can the Pyongyang regime enforce discipline when famine strikes again? At what point will the North Korean people become so desperate that they do not fear the regime? And what will they do this time if they know they have a place to flee when they begin to starve yet again?
