All of these disasters had negatively affected the people of North Korea. As a result of these terrible events, around 2.5 million North Koreans were killed. This adds up to about ten percent of the population. One would think that North Korea would have the ability to be self-sustained during this time period, but this would not be true. In fact, “North Korea did not resume its food self-sufficiency, continuing to rely on external food aid from China, Japan, South Korea, and the United States for more than a decade.” (New World Encyclopedia, North Korea, last paragraph.) After the famine, nearly 62 percent of the population had relied on the Public Distribution System. However, the System could only help about six percent of the nation. In addition, this six percent of people only received one-hundred and twenty-eight grams of food, much less than they needed to survive.
Even though the famine occurred in the mid-1990s, things have not gotten better. “North Korea’s food crisis has endured for over twenty years and continues to be met with intransparency and inefficiency.” (Mass-Starvations in North Korea, North Korea Now RSS) Currently, it is estimated that thirty percent of the current population does not have enough to eat. This is, and has been, a continual struggle for the people of North …show more content…
The people suffer from a lack of dietary diversity which leads to a prevalent condition, anemia. In North Korea, there is no compelling difference between dietary diversity and anemia. In the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea Final Report of the National Nutrition Survey 2012, it is noted that lower food diversity is associated with a higher proportion of under nutrition in women. (pg. 59) It emphasizes the important issues that need to be highlighted: “The presence of thinness and anemia in women highlight the needs to target them with more specific interventions during pregnancy and lactation to offer the best start as possible for their children.” (pg. 73) Anemia is a serious issue that needs to be carefully watched as it often has a negative impact on the outcome of pregnancy and the development of