By Fareed Zakaria, CNN
It's not all missiles and mischief in Pyongyang these days. Despite the dire state of the nation, the North Koreans have had time for fun. Earlier this month they threw a food festival replete with sturgeon, soft-shell crab, bullfrog and other "famous dishes." The sign says, in English, "Cook Festival of Holiday of April."
Check out the video above. This ridiculous display was put on by the government in a nation where as many as 3 million people are at risk of starvation. And to make matters worse, North Korea recently got cut off from American food aid.
North Korea: The land of unique tastes and dreadful policies.
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N.Korean government does not have the monopoly on thumbing its nose up at the masses. Just look at all the recent videos of over the top government parties thrown for their employees while the rest of the country tightens its fiscal belt. The beauty of spending other peoples money never gets old. Just ask the Obamas as they head to vacations on separate planes, or sending their 13 year old daughter on spring break to Mexico with 25 secret service members to act as tax payer supplied nannies. Life is good
The article is about N.Korea and it's government not caring about the starvation of it's own people, and you some how found a way to talk bad about Obama? Where do you people come from? Is EVERYTHING Obama's fault to you????
... back on topic
This is really sad. To make things worse, China, N.Koreas "ally", is just using them as a buffer so they don't have a US/UN ally right at their door step. China does just enough to keep N.Korea's government going. Man all that food and yet people are dying literally in the streets. TRUELY sick.
Well, if its so horrible their maybe you should write KJU a letter and tell him how you feel. HAHAH.Truthhurts is right about our govt. Sounds like it hit a nerve with you at least. The Obama example is just a recent one. Every person in a high political position in the US has the power to do what they please, with your money. It creates a god mentality, Wait until the people in power get more control over welfare. The people in power will tell C what to do with A and Bs money by providing them with staples for survival with it, Its already happening, we have generational welfare all over the country. Talk about playing god. Say no to bg govt and socialism.
What else will be Obama's fault to these people? 9/11? Iraq? Challenger Explosion? The Kennedy Assassination? These trolls on meds should not be taken seriously.
China see's DPRK as an idealistic ally in an area surrounded by an open free governments. In a way, North Korea's Totalitarian government is what China wish they could be and uses the north as a pawn to keep neighboring countries in check. Mess with DPRK and its WWIII in most of the hardline Chinese leaders opinions.
North Korea's agriculture didn't yield at all in 1996 and 1997 due to drought or floods. Two million were estimated to have died as a result of famine. The country relies on food aid, as it doesn't have enough foreign currency to buy food and goods from abroad.
Don't forget the the weather and global warming, also clearly Obama's fault
paul, remember, most of those who blame the president for everything, including stinky shoes, do not believe in this "left-wing global warming nonsense." That is one thing they will not blame on anybody.
It's bad enough that there are a bunch of nut jobs out there that blame Obama for everything. What really amazes me, is that is a political party that consists almost entirely of these people, and one of them has is actually running for president!
Also, China is afraid that a "people's rebelion" right at their doorstep might inspire their own people.
What else is the current admin responsible for? Free spending on projects for selected political pork products. If you go back and review where the money went for QE1 and QE2, you will see most of the government spending were in heavy Democratic supported states. Then who got these contracts were companies that gave money to Democratic politicians. Report by the GAO is that only 11% of the money spend for QE1 (didn't see QE2 report) was spent wisely for projects to help Americans to get back to work. Can you say PORK??? This led to the largest increase in debt to our country, even bigger and faster than either World War. And you want to continue this spending spree with our children and grand children's money?
How did he talk bad about Obama.. he said they were cut off from food aid which is fact. Maybe the Korean people will eat their new great father. Because with food aid cut off, it's going to be the people who suffer, not the new great father.
Because Republican Presidents never took vacations, and their children all attended public schools with no Secret Service.
You are such a buffoon.
Actually, Bush's record on vacations is far, far worse than Obama's. But you wont hear that out of the mouths that criticize either.
In fact, Jimmy Carter (a Democrat) was the only president in recent memory who send his child to public school in Washington. As far as the high cost of Secret Service protection goes, that's not a benefit that the protectees get, its protection for America from their being kidnapped or killed. When Chelsea Clinton attended Stanford, yes, there was a huge taxpayer cost for the protection – but her parents paid the tuition, and she did the schoolwork.
Most protectees consider the Secret Service a necessarily annoynce – they're not servants or butlers.
Sad to say, but Jimmy Carter wasn't too great of a president. I don't care about presidents' personal lives as long as I'm not dying of starvation. But of course, other people will never be satisfied just because they don't get to have 25 secret service members protect their child.
What's funny is when Michael Moore made similar accusations against Bush, you future tea baggers were all like "GRRRR, HOW DARE THAT YANKEE WITH HIS FANCY BOOK LERNIN CRITICIZE THE PRESIDENT. HE HAS A RIGHT TO TAKE MONTHLY VACATIONS, GRRR"
As usual, it's okay unless the black guy does it.
HAH! What's really funny, is that you are mad at people calling out Obama. Yet when Bush had bad press, people like you were calling him out. Don't dish it, if you can't take it.
whos the black guy?
good question g!
Look i think obama shouldn't have stopped food from going to north korea.It isn't the citizens of north koreas fault but they pay for what there mental government does.And the united states tends to help other country's more than it's own country we got thousand of people starving to death in america.And obama didn't make those jobs the private sector did.So i got words for obama if he wants to talk politicis i am the person to talk to.I know politics and i know america we need obama out!. I am a mitt romney supporter because mitt romney would know what to do.Mitt Romney got expierence in politics.
The point is, that the people need to rise up, not be taken care of by foreign powers "in spite of" their government. Ghandi did it peacefully. Oh Yeah, Romney is an idiot. Obama might not be the answer, but partisan politics will ruin this country, There are a lot of different positions. The republicans insist that it's their way or the highway.
name one person who is "starving to death" in this fat cultured country many call the greatest place on earth.
people here obviously have swollen stomachs comparable to malnourished children in Africa and Asia, people in this country obviously have absolutely no money for food or fresh water and have to stand under cattle while they urinate so they can shower and drink. people here in this arrogant bloody country obviously die on the streets while vultures are 10 feet away waiting for them to die while some photo-journalist from a first world country can photograph. you obviously haven't a clue of how the world works. and that's what really matters, how the world works. not how americaland works. america is and has always been backwards.
Problem is that maybe, just maybe, 5% of the food aid would actually go to the people who actually need it. The North Korean gov't is notorious for usurping the food for its own use. Almost all the food from previous aid shipments has been used to feed its massive military.
Mitt also has experience tying dogs to the roof of his car – wow, what a guy!!!!!!!!!
@Alex – At least this backwards country shed its monarchy, something your backwards country has not.
Umm thats every president ever. Its one of the perks of the job. If you think Romney won't do the same or that Bush didn't do the same you are crazy.
It's kind of funny how people blame Obama. Can't take them seriously.
I remembered when Clinton took office and he turned the economy around, the people on the right said it's Bush's (senior) credit. All the ground work (for the good economy) has been done when Bush left office. When Bush junior took office with huge surplus and a short time later managed to rack the economy, the same people said it was a cycle in the economy. Goes down under Bush's senior, goes up under Clinton, goes down again under Bush's junior....
Same people gave credit to Bush's junior for killing Bin Ladin. I wonder if Obama should take the blame for 9/11?
Myopic much?
Oh my god...please tell me you're not equating N. Korea having an ostentatious display of food when millions are starving to an over-the-top gin 'n' hooers fest by the GSA... Have you no sense of scale?
You are right, the North Korean situation pales compared to the GSA scandle. Today, we can not fix the N K problem, but we can fix the GSA. There is a difference between the politically correct and doing the right thing. The politically correct answer for N K is to keep sending food to save the poor starving people. I feel for them, however, the right thing to do is stop all shipments and support a removal of the current regime and have the two countries combine into one. Then the ONE KOREA can use the power of the free market, capitalism and support from the world to rebuild a strong Korea. Yes, few will have to die now, to help the country grow strong for their future.
Which ear did they put the computer chip in at the last GOP rally? You see my friends, these conservative , business educated GOP types are incapable of rational, critical thought. That's why our country is going down! The GOP has done more damage to the USA in the last forty years than ANY enemy our country has EVER had! They have made us less inteligent, less free and with less security than ever before.
Aaah yes, and when did you jump on the "fiscally responsible" bandwagon, before or after trillions of our money went to the Iraq war and thousands of Americans and Iraqis were wiped out on our account? Gimme a break.
About N.Korea. If all interested parties actually excreted their pressure on China, they would stop treating N Korea as their illegitimate child, but it's evident neither the East nor West are really interested in a prosperous Korea.
You know what else is Obama's fault? The Dodgers moving to L.A. We're still not over that in Brooklyn.
Although I disagree with the Obama is to blame portion, it is sadly true that N. Korea is hardly the only or even the first country to ignore the less fortunate while wasting food for shows like this.
It doesn’t look like the great wonderful fearless leader ever missed a meal. Check the fat on that body.
It would not hurt the great wonderful fearless leader to miss a meal or two and stop wasting money on fireworks and buy some food for those kids! What great leader that can fatten up while the kids look for tree bark and bugs to eat.
Truthhurts, Obama had nothing to do with that $800,000 GSA conference. Besides, when the discussion was surrounding the proposed Buffett rule that would have increased revenues by $47,000,000,000, the GOP argued that it was pointless because $47,000,000,000 is "not much money".
So, let me get this straight. $800,000 is a lot of money. But $47,000,000,000 is not a lot of money.
Yeah. Know what? GTH.
@Truth
You're an a-sshole and a racist pig!
So what else is new? The old-bamas are like the fan: they blow from the front, suck from the back and isn't worth a freakin damn on the sides! Tired of all the crapola!!
Tea baggers/southerners suck their relatives from the front.
"Keep it in the family or keep it in your pants" - CSA motto.
Thats just something that someone who has no real rebuttal to a comment. The only thing more pathetic than that kind of response is the "thumbs down" on some other sites.
Always what we hear when something is true, but a person doesn't like......"your racist".
Relax, he was just saying that the glut of spending is a terrible thing.
Southerners/tea baggers are angry because their stranglehold on the Republican party, and thus their stranglehold on American politics is fading fast. Despite all their bellicose huffing and puffing, the GOP is about to nominate a northern Yankee moderate as its presidential candidate. The Southern strategy is dead. And this band of Timothy McVeigh sympathizing neo-Confederate bigots can't stand it.
Expect them to field one of their own Dixiecrat-style candidates, splitting the conservative vote and guaranteeing a double-digit Obama victory. I greatly fear what will happen after that, because as Anders Breivik demonstrated, these right wing lunatics are capable of anything when they feel like they're backed into a corner.
wow, you really hate southerners. spewing hate like this, only fuels the fire. hypocrisy-look it up.
Look all i am trying to say is that we spend to much money on crap that we don't need.And i want to point out i am not racist don't call people racist if you got no clue what you talking about.Are government spends so much money on stuff not needed.And there is a lot of people in america starving and many homeless and the private sector made those jobs idiots.Listen to the news.Yes i am a mitt Romney supporter because he is the one that can fix america.Hey ill give obama credit he try'ed but he really didn't know what he was doing.Mitt Romney knows how. And why did obama sit on his @ss for 3 years and did nothing until the reelection race.
I don't know what or who to believe any more.
Where is the evidence now?
Hows life in Pyongyang?
Why can't I post?
Fareed
I don't see anything wrong with NK having a food festival! So what's the big deal here? After all, there are no international treaties or resolutions that say it is prohibited for NK to have a picnic after all! First its prohibited for them to launch a missile now we have a problem with them having a food festival? What's next, condemning Jung Un for spending time with his fiancee? Please, enough is enough!
I believe its a big mistake on our part to suspend the food aid to NK simply because more isolation is not going to open the door and increase the potential for progress! I find it very discouraging in that every time the world's leading superpower is called upon to lead, it stumbles and continues to make execuses as to why it cannot work with our enemies! So NK launches a missile and suddenly we decided to cut the food aid and shut the door to diplomacy? Are we the grown ups in the room? So what's next? Do we wait another half century until perhaps Jung Un dies to re-open dialogue with his successor? Wasn't the launching of this missile planned by his father's leadership years before he died? So why punish the young leader for something that was planned by the previous administration and even before he has a chance to fully understand the West's position and goals for the region? Isn't it a little premature to shut the diplomatic channels on the young leader withouth seeing where he stands with SK and the West?
Let's face it, the only way we're going to gain the trust of our enemies is to show a little flexibility and cut them some slack and give them the benefit of doubt without alienating them! During GWB's tenure, he often referred to NK and Iran as axels of evil, yet at the end of his tenure, there he was expecting NK to make concessions on their nuclear weapons program! Well, you can't have your cake and eat it and sure enough, it was no surprise that NK broke the deal because you can't trust someone who calls you axels of evil and then wants you to make concessions! Especially with someone who invaded and destabilized a country over lies about WMD's!
So who is less trustworthy, NK or America? I am urging President Obama to resume the food aid and talks with NK and allow for diplomacy with the young leader simply because if Jung Un violates any future agreements, we could always cancel the food aid at any given point in time! But again, cutting off food aid and closing the door to diplomacy because of a missile launch is premature and counterproductive to our stated goals as we must gain the young leader's trust and demonstrate to him that we are willing to help NK become friends and join the league of nations! And if we are truly the world's leader, its time we start acting like the grown up in the room for a change!
Why should we give food to a country that tells it's people that WE are the reason they are starving and that WE are the reason they need to spend everything they have on their military? It's not the NK people's fault, but it's not our responsibility to fix their problems when we can't even get a handle on our own. Let NK have its isolation. The people will either starve to death (very sad), or rise up and make a change. It's what WE did, a couple of hundred years ago.
@Dave
That's not true! Furthermore, if we're going to continue assuming the role of leader of the free world and continue to house the UN in our country, then we must find ways to make friends with our enemies and work towards world peace! And if this food aid would help to ease tensions and start the process of diplomacy, then its a step in the right direction!
We've given them food before. Where's the diplomacy? I wouldn't offer food to my neighbor if I knew that he was telling his whole family that I'm the reason their life sucks.
You really have no clue, do you? What reason does he need to send a satellite into orbit? It failed, horribly, just like most people knew it would. If we gave them food after they launched the missile how would that make us look? If we are the adults in the room then why would we reward the children for misbehaving? Is that how you raise your children?
@lee
No, you're the clueless one! Giving food aid to NK wouldn't be a means of rewarding it for a missile launch simply because we have already condemned the launch and stated our position! But as the leader of the free world, do we shut down all channels of diplomacy because of this launch? Does the UN stop deplomacy because of an infraction? Does the UN stop deplomacy because Assad continues to kill innocent civilians in Syria? Do we stop diplomacy because Iran continues to enrich uranium at 20%? No lee ,we have to act like the grown up in the room and keep working towards diplomacy because after all, that is the role we have adopted as the leader of the free world and that is the role the UN has adopted as the body of the league of nations! And that is the only way to bring about diplomacy! And by the way lee, resuming food aid to NK wouldn't make us look any more stupid than we alread look for invading and destabilizing Iraq over lies about WMD's! Now, that is childish and deplorable!
@ Blah Blah Blah
have you been paying attention to our relationship with NK for the past decade and beyond? We've BEEN providing food aid and opportunities for diplomatic relations and it hasn't worked. Your acting as if we havent been doing it for years upon years.You sir are a buffoon, and a sham of a person. A tall glass of hot rubbish juice from concentrate.
How naive art thou?
Oh my God, get a flippin clue. You honestly think this "picnic" was a good idea? No wonder pro-UN fools like you can't get anything done...well, except spend a ton of money on "good intentions". Giving NK food aid just enables the psychopath government. Let the people starve. Once the starvation is bad enough, the military crumbles and we can finally put an end to this sad chapter in humanity. It's better to kill a million now than to keep 20 million as slaves for a century and let them die at a rate of "only" 200,000 per year.
I'm pretty sure that the food aid doesn't go where it is supposed to go. Why bother.
it's "Axis of Evil", you moron....
you got alot of time on your hands get a job! pay taxes-moron
This food is only for who N. Korea considers important people worth feeding. While this bunch feeds on all this food, other N. Koreans are eating grass and rats, to stay alive. You can tell, the fat slob who now governs N. Korea, has never missed a meal. If Bush was going to attack a country and bring democracy to it, to bad it wasn't this one. God help those poor starving people.
Bush never brought democracy to any country!
That's the first sensible thing you've said in this thread.
If only Sarah Palin would share her secret recipe for s'mores with the N. Koreans. They would never be hungry again !
Well, except, she'd skip the last 3 steps and they'd have to finish cooking it all on their own.
Give North Korea more carots for rewarding.
it's "carrots", you moron.
Gahh is correct, food aid does not go to the people it is meant for. It goes to the upper party members and the military. Fareed is a little niave to think that NK can actually be a useful member of the international community. The entire country is a prison camp. Nobody in, nobody out. When food aid is cut off it means NK has to spend what money it has to feed the party and the military and has to cut back on weapons and nuclear tests. This is not something that just started with NK, it's been going on for a half a century. Until they put people first, millions more will die from starvation no matter how much aid is given to them.
Perhaps if you had a chance to have read the terms of the deal, you would have discovered that the agreement involved international observers monitoring the delivery of food to the civilian population, every pounf of it! That means there would be less likelihood that the aid would be delivered to the military!
complete idiot
Seriiously? You don't think they food would be loaded in to trucks and driven away in to the sunset?
it's "every POUND of it", you MORON....
trailer you are an idiot!
@mr apartment
Why am I an idiot? Please explain!
What are the odds the delicacies they arranged so neatly on the table for this transparent photo-op is all made of plastic? 'Cause if I was one of the looky-loo extras placed around the table, I'd be a little miffed to see & smell all that food only to go home to my usual cup of gruel. Complimentary napkins to sop up the drool? If it was real, I guarantee you not one of the people portrayed in the photo got a taste of any of it. I mean, how many chins does their new boy-God need?
The event wasn't to convey to the West that they have an abundant of food but just a continuation of a week of ceremonies to commemorate the founder of their nation! What are we going to criticize next, the way they dress?
Blah Blah yer diks in yer hand....
Fareed Zakaria, America's WMD against the Pacific region.
Please stop moaning about North Korea. If the people really are starving and they choose to die for their country rather than stand up and revolt, then I'm afraid they deserve their fate, and no amount of international bickering can help them. They must help themselves. And don't give me crap about the whole brainwashing propaganda thing. Eating and surviving are basic human needs. If they cannot even find the determination to survive then they are not worth my sympathies.
North korea as well as Iran and Syria, are run by ruthless people. They do not care about their own people, so how much do they care about the rest of the world too? A person who is almost dead from malnutrition cannot rise up in revolt. The people who are eating most likely pull favors for the government. ( going on television and crying for the death of great leader etc. ) Instead of giving them food aid ( the people dont get it anyhow ) Spend that money on offers of wealth to defectors. The higher up the more money. When one rat leaves the ship more will follow.
North Korea is a very dangerous country.The next time they act up ( sink a sub, shell islands, launch their next bigger rocket etc.) the U.S. should unload a Trident sub on them. Russia and China would not retaliate ( NK is not important enough to them to do anything but complain ) Iran would complain just so that everyone will know that they are there (were ever that is ) but their eyes would be wide open. The U.S. would be the # 1 super power again just as it was at the end of WW 2 and would end all the B.S. with Iran also.
These people go well with the Iranians, whom you called rational.
I don't see NK brutalizing and killing its people! I don't see them attacking or invading foreign countries! The poor are poor not because their government starves them but because its a country lacking in industrial development and commerce and its a country stymied by economic sanctions because of its political and ideological differences! Not much of NK is different from China or Russia politically or socially yet we trade with China and Russia because they are vast countries with an abundant of natural resources! Don't believe the propaganda because just about everything we condemn and oppose in NK, we embrace and support in China and Russia! NK doesn't have much of a history as China or Russia yet we Westerners have a keen tendency to categorize NK as so evil and ruthless when its just plain old American propaganda and lies! I say its time to end the isolation with NK and help it become an industrialized nation! Let's face it, all the weaponry in NK weren't manufacturedin NK because they came from China and Russia so who is evil and ruthless here? Hypocrisy!
Really? You don't see it? When was the last time you were there? I can tell you, never. NK is starving their people. They even admitt they are starving. They are running around the world right now begging anyone who will listen for food. Instead of trying to maintain one of the world's largest armies, how about the use some of that money to actually feed their people.
Does the US have starving people? Yup. Does it have vastly more to offer those people than NK? Yup. Is the US government the ones causing the starvation? Nope.
That is the difference between here and there.
It truly is a shame people like you who have no idea what you are talking about have an outlet to share your uninformed opinions.
Perhaps you're one of those rightwing lunatics who re-elected GWB to screw up our country! Speak like a true republican!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2039542/North-Korea-Satellite-photos-death-camps-deny-exist.html
Hmmm....not killing people? I guess they use their death camps for recreational activities.
A real food festival in North Korea would feature different ways to cook leaves and grass.
Let them starve, no more aid, as sad as that is. All aid does is prolong the misery. Eventually, they'll become so weak they will have to capitulate.
It's all for show like Potemkin villages and Shanghai. Communist countries like to fool one another at the top that everything is great by hording what there is amidst the Politburo-military. The other 99% of the country never sees such feasts. Yes, they are victims of global puppeteering but they are not all that different from people anywhere.
Yep, that's what I thought...US threatens to cut off the food aid for N. Korea, and it's not going to be the high brass that starve, it's going to be the little people that don't have a voice in that country. I mean, have you SEEN a picture of the new dictator there? He definitely doesn't look like he's missed any meals. He's out there riding horses and the horses look tired from carrying his fat @$$. The government spends TONS of money on nuclear research and none on any kind of food or resources for their dying people. That's the kind of leader you have there. But let's face facts, that's the leaders from everywhere, they're so busy covering their own skin that they don't worry about anyone else's even though they've been appointed (or in NK's case, born into it) to watch out for their country's people. Some countries are just better at hiding it than others....and the people of NK will never know better because the government controls everything they do...they can't even talk badly about the new regime without fear of punishment. And of course the government controls the media, so if they want to make it look like it's all the US's fault that they are not receiving aid anymore, that's what they're going to believe because that's what the government is going to put out there for them, and they'll have no choice but to believe the only piece of news that they are allowed to hear. It's a no-win situation all the way around. NK's dictator doesn't care, all he sees are the "dogs" of his country under his boots...
I find it laughable that Americans would criticize the very same political and ideological doctrines in NK that they embrace and acknowledge in China and Russia! The Chinese and Russian governments spend trillions on millitary and starve their people, oppress them, take away all their rights and put dissidents in exile for decades yet you Americans back China and Russia! And it s even more laughable when you Americans use a computer made in China to criticize NK for buying weapons made in China! Dumb Americans!
The U.S. is better than NK. So stop complaining about how were are the same as NK. We don't have everything we want but we are arguably the greatest nation in the world!
The first thing the DPRK has to do is get to the table and put an official end to the war. I doubt if the South wants anything to do with reconciliation , as it would be a massive economic burded to unify the North and the South, but the threat and constant distraction of a full on war needs to be nullified. Asia and Africa are full of countries that feed the armies first, but what are they protecting? Who wants to invade NK, or Somalia?
That is not a picture from a food festival. It is a picture of Fat Boy Kim's lunch table. What's not seen in the picture is his case of Twinkys for dessert.
Another madness of this damned insane dictator having his people die of starvation.. shouldn't he be stopped once and for all !!!
It would be nice if you Americans try to be a little more encouraging and try to look at the bigger picture here! As long as their is continued tensions between NK and SK, America would have to put forth the bill to maintain a multi-billion dollar base to ensure that their is stability in the region for one!
Secondly, our 50 thousand troops stationed there would continue to be isolated from their love ones and from their country for decades to come as long as we continue to be unwilling to try to speed up the process and promote peace between two hostile nations! Its not just about feeding North Koreans but also breaking the ice so we could make some kind of diplomatic progress! It was good to see our troops come home from Iraq and eventually Afghanistan and the same is to be said of our troops stationed in SK and at other installations worldwide! You know the combined cost of the Iraqi and Afghan war is 4.8 trillion dollars and by the projected end of the Afghan war, that figure would near 6 trillion dollars! You people said we should focus more on Americans and less on North Koreans? Well, I agree but the only way to do so effectively is to make friends with both N&SK so that we can bring our troops home and save trillions of dollars in the process! And if that road to diplomacy starts with food aid, then so be it!
We stay in SK as a precaution against NK. Unlike NK we can afford to station our troops in other countries without starving our .
That's not true! We're starving our own people because millions are unemployed, we owe China trillions of dollars in debt and we're still trying to recover from the worst economic crisis in our nation's history! We need to bring our troops home from SK just like we did in Iraq and soon to be Afghanistan so we can reduce wasteful military spending and reduce our national deficit!
I agree with Blah....
I posted this same comment up top, but I want to repost it again so blah blah can see it:
@ Blah Blah Blah
have you been paying attention to our relationship with NK for the past decade and beyond? We've BEEN providing food aid and opportunities for diplomatic relations and it hasn't worked. Your acting as if we havent been doing it for years upon years.You sir are a buffoon, and a sham of a person. A tall glass of hot rubbish juice from concentrate.
To Blah Blah: One of the many problems with your argument that the U.S. should give food aid to North Korea is the fact that the U.S. has given that country food aid for decades, without North Korea making any reciprocal show of goodwill. Since 1996 the U.S. donated $800,000,000 (eight hundred million dollars) of food aid to North Korea. At some point it is reasonable to conclude that a program has not worked. We are now at that point.
And actually, the U.S. gave them food aid before that. I was stationed at Camp Howze, Korea in the mid-80's, when the South Korean government began trucking rice past our post to North Korea - and much of that rice was donated to South Korea by the U.S. specifically for the purpose of humanitarian relief to North Korea.
Those hundreds of millions of dollars of donations did nothing to improve North Korea's policies toward South Korea or the U.S. Why do you think another donation would have that effect?
Yes! But the food aid we gave to NK back then was under a different leadership for one! Secondly, the aid we provided NK before were done so with good faith and with no concessions or demands of NK interms to relinquishing its nuclear ambitions! The game is different today because NK has a new leader and it would be a big mistake to shut the door to diplomacy prematurely because of a missile launch that was planned perhaps a few years ago! Let's face it, more isolation is not going to encourage the young Jung Un to start talks! Again, the objective here is how to bring about peace between the two Koreas and stability to the region and more isolation of NK is not going to help us to achieve that end result!
you better get some wheels on that rv big one. one could say that you might need to get a job and get off gov. check
Were they allowed to eat it? or just look at it?
Let us have a nationally food fight.
Isn't a food festival in North Korea, where far too many people routinely starve, rather like the Sahara Desert hosting a hockey tournament?
There were poor Americans starving and people out of job, and GWB had the luxury of spending $3trillion in Iraq, increased the national debt from $3trillion to $11trillion and all these people kept quiet. So very quiet. Even so, now.
Who encouraged the marketing of SUVs and economic policies where the climate effects wrought further hunger to the world and whose deviant gospel says, leave to the gods of their faith for the world will always have the hungry and dying poor.
Where were these guys, self-righteous people who white-wash their deviant theology with the brand new gospel Jezebel?
No guts to speak up for G-d.
I do't think that there is an easy answer, here.
I can say that I have lived here in America for 66 years, and have NEVER....NEVER seen anyone on the street who has died from starvation.
With all the problems we have here, I still feel that we have been blessed abundantly.
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if Truman wasn't such a sorry excuse for a Statesman, he would have let MacArthur go to town on North Korea back in the fifties, and the world wouldn't be having this problem right now. My facetious thanks to Truman’s entire gene pool: they should each be just as ashamed, as I am, that they are alive.
You forget the reason why Truman did what he did: He didn't want to start a full fledged war with China. It would have been too inpredictable. Maybe China would have pulled back...maybe not. He had no way of knowing.
sanjosemike
So their fat pig of a leader and the other puppets under him got to eat well, while everyone else starved.
Despots ALWAYS feed their armies first. That is one of the ways they manage to stay in power. It's always been like that, ever since the very first warlord took a position of power.
If there isn't much to go around, armies will always be fed first. North Korea is in a tough agricultural place due to their very short growing season and authoritarian regime. There would be much more food to go around if a form of capitalism would be allowed (like China).
But you and I (and the starving people of NK) will never see that.
sanjosemike
I have a food festivel going on in my pants.
OBAMY KILLED GOD'S UNICORNS
How many millions of Americans are at risk of starvation right now?
While billions of taxpayer money goes to the oil companies and to banks and Wall Street and into the pockets of Congressmen to let it all continue.
You want North Korea to change,lead by example.
Otherwise,stop the sensational journalism and talk with the North Korean government like they actually run North Korea because,guess what,they actually do.
CNN would never write something negative about the Obama administration. Its not only Wall Street and oil companies, look at the Obama admin and his GSA!
The food festival is nothing!!! How about reporting on something even more ridiculous – the GSA. There are thousands if not millions of people who can't get access to decent food, health care, or dental care while millions of dollars were completely wasted on something even more ridiculous. The money wasted by the GSA makes the money spent on the food festival look like loose change.
I see the republican s have got their talking points in order. Well done, folks.
Good to see that they have a lovely food festival but even better if only they would feed their people with the same type & quality of food. That's what they should be aspiring to do – getting their priorities right and not allowing their citizens to starve.
I don't know how anyone can compare what happened in Pyongyang to what happens in the States. For God's sake, people, no one is starving to death here. We have food stamps and food banks. People there are dying. Dead. Not coming back. Little children dying in their parents' arms. Literally. A homeless person here has way more to eat. Get real. Take American politics out of this picture. It wouldn't matter who was president here. North Korea's Food Festival was unconscionable.
Are you sure about this? How?
All I hear about in North Korea is the starvation and oppression. Yet, news footage from there shows people generally well dressed, and no one lying in the streets dying or gaunt. What gives?
Everything North Korea does is with our consent,
as long as we are content to sit on our rumps and do nothing.
THEY MISSED ON ALL THE HUMAN WASTE DISHES AND HUMAN URINE DISHES , AMEN .
We do not know the full extent of their famine. Just because We cut off their food supply doesn't mean they could be on the brink of starving. Remember, most of the men in that country belong to their military. Do you honestly think that they would starve them, especially under the shaky ground that they are on?
Just more proof of how we need to cut our losses with N Korea and let them fall apart, go to war or whatever else happens to them . I know I don't care anymore.. I don't.. Tired of caring about people who would S on us ,given half a chance.. Why bother?
See how wonderful life in North Korea? Just like in Cuba! Whereas in United States people are starving! What a shame!
Sarah Palin is the only one who can heal and re-unify our country. But in order to do so, she must get back in her bus and resume her cross country tour. She will have to visit cities both large and small, speaking only to "real Americans", dispensing her sage advice and folksy, homespun common sense solutions. We can be a great nation again but we must follow the "Palin Path".
The NKorean starving poor are a bit like the Loch Ness monster. All we have are grainy photos and material that is obviously propaganda that is almost as egragious as the stuff made by NKorea. The media seems hard pressed to really show evidence of just how bad it is in NK. I understand that NK is a strange place, but is there a higher percentage of starving people there than in the U.S? I have had difficulty determining this.
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