GENEVA (Reuters) - Four in ten North Koreans are chronically short of food and further cuts to already minimal rations are expected after the worst harvest in a decade, the United Nations said on Friday.
Official rations are down to 300 grammes - under 11 ounces - per person per day, the lowest ever for this time of year, the U.N. said following a food security assessment it carried out at Pyongyang’s request from March 29 to April 12.
It found that 10.1 million people were suffering from severe food insecurity, “meaning they do not have enough food till the next harvest,” U.N. World Food Program spokesman Herve Verhoosel said.
North Korea’s population is around 25.2 million, according to its Central Bureau of Statistics, the report said.
Verhoosel said the word “famine” was not being used in the current crisis, but it might come to that in a few months or years. “The situation is very serious today - that’s a fact.”
The country suffered a famine in the mid-1990s believed to have killed as many as 3 million people.
Speaking in a wood-paneled office aboard Air Force One, Baier put it to the US president that Kim was “a killer. He’s executing people.”
Trump replied by praising Kim as a “tough guy. Hey, when you take over a country, tough country, with tough people, and you take it over from your father, I don’t care who you are, what you are, how much of an advantage you have – if you can do that at 27 years old, that’s one in 10,000 could do that.”
Trump went on: “So he’s a very smart guy, he’s a great negotiator and I think we understand each other.”
Baier, sounding taken aback by the president’s flippant response, pressed Trump on the issue: “But he’s still done some really bad things.”
To which Trump said: “Yeah, but so have a lot of other people done some really bad things. I could go through a lot of nations where a lot of bad things were done.”
I find all this new found cautious optimism regarding Trump's efforts regarding NK amusing and self serving. With all of the shit I've taken over Trump, this new found charity in the form of thinking that maybe Trump may actually have a plan that is working instead of he is unfit to have his fingers on the button just does not come off as sincere.
Let's be honest. I know what all of you are really thinking. This isn't about world peace. Its really about Trump wanting to open up new resort hotels and golf courses. He figures that he can buy his way in and give Kim a piece of the action in exchange for peace and exclusive rights to develop NK. All those deserted beaches waiting for high rise towers and casinos. And think of all the cheap slave labor available to build and staff the properties.
Security for the North Korean leader has been high throughout the trip, but it is unclear whether the pens were swapped for security or political reasons.
Says something at the bottom about "these difficult and trying times." Probably a robot signature. But, I was the only one in my school that had a letter from Spiro T Agnew!
No one calls my vice president stupid and ignorant and gets away with it. Pick one.
I still have my letter from from when I wrote the VP, using a Don Novello approach, telling him how much I was sorry for what he was going through.
Says something at the bottom about "these difficult and trying times." Probably a robot signature. But, I was the only one in my school that had a letter from Spiro T Agnew!
Basically, Trump is canceling the summit because of the “tremendous anger and open hostility” North Korea displayed recently, to Pence and threatening to cancel the summit itself.
Here’s the background to all that:
As Trump officials said they wanted North Korea to totally dismantle their nuclear capabilities, North Korea had appeared to waver about whether it was going to participate in the meeting with Trump.
In response, Trump White House officials started comparing North Korea to Libya, a country that dismantled its nascent nuclear program. It’s an ominous one for North Korea: That same leader ended up dead less than a decade later after a civil war in which the U.S. got militarily involved.
As North Korea escalated suggestions it might not participate in the summit, Trump officials doubled down. In a Fox News interview this week, Vice President Pence said North Korea would “end like the Libya model ended” if Kim backed out of the meeting with Trump. Asked if he was threatening Kim, Pence said: “I think it’s more of a fact.”
In response, North Korea’s Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs said Pence’s comments were “stupid” and “ignorant” and called him a “political dummy.”
Also this week, Trump threatened to back out of the summit if North Korea did not meet “certain conditions.” He did not elaborate on what those conditions were, reports The Post’s Anna Fifield.
North Korea issued a statement in response saying it’s up to the United States to “meet us at a meeting room or encounter us at nuclear-to-nuclear showdown.”
Now the summit is canceled, with Trump citing “tremendous anger and open hostility” on North Korea’s part.
No one calls my vice president stupid and ignorant and gets away with it. Pick one.
Basically, Trump is canceling the summit because of the “tremendous anger and open hostility” North Korea displayed recently, to Pence and threatening to cancel the summit itself.
Here’s the background to all that:
As Trump officials said they wanted North Korea to totally dismantle their nuclear capabilities, North Korea had appeared to waver about whether it was going to participate in the meeting with Trump.
In response, Trump White House officials started comparing North Korea to Libya, a country that dismantled its nascent nuclear program. It’s an ominous one for North Korea: That same leader ended up dead less than a decade later after a civil war in which the U.S. got militarily involved.
As North Korea escalated suggestions it might not participate in the summit, Trump officials doubled down. In a Fox News interview this week, Vice President Pence said North Korea would “end like the Libya model ended” if Kim backed out of the meeting with Trump. Asked if he was threatening Kim, Pence said: “I think it’s more of a fact.”
In response, North Korea’s Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs said Pence’s comments were “stupid” and “ignorant” and called him a “political dummy.”
Also this week, Trump threatened to back out of the summit if North Korea did not meet “certain conditions.” He did not elaborate on what those conditions were, reports The Post’s Anna Fifield.
North Korea issued a statement in response saying it’s up to the United States to “meet us at a meeting room or encounter us at nuclear-to-nuclear showdown.”
Now the summit is canceled, with Trump citing “tremendous anger and open hostility” on North Korea’s part.
"Repugnant" is a very fitting description of Bolton. It could be a move on the part of NK to distance have Trump distance Bolton from the talks as that author Murphy speculated.
And they are right, I can't believe the Walrus is back in government. Un freekin' believable. You could not do any worse than the trifecta of Sessions, Guilani and Bolton. Three humongous strikes.
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