The North Korean famine, known as the Arduous March (Korean: 고난의 행군) in North Korea, was a famine in North Korea which began in the early 1990s and ended in the late 1990s.[5] Estimates state that, from a population of approximately 22 million, between 900,000 and 3.5 million people died from starvation or hunger-related illnesses, with the deaths peaking in
In the early 1990s, the economy of North Korea was on the precipice of collapse. From the 1950s up until 1989, the agricultural, industrial, and energy sectors grew with infrastructure being consistently reinvested in by surpluses in the national account balance. However, following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, North Korea entered a period of steep internal industrial decline.[7][8] The government initially responded by intensifying policies that were practiced in the past that focused on increasing physical labor requirements due to limited access to new technology and necessary agricultural inputs, such as fertilizer, and fuel.[9] The country soon instigated austerity measures, dubbed the “eat two meals a day” campaign[10] These measures proved inadequate in stemming the economic decline. According to Professor Hazel Smith of Cranfield University
It's truly horrible what hunger and desperation can do to a people. A Washington Post report talked about a famine that lasted between 1995 and 1997.
In the article, they interviewed a young clerk who told the reporters they wouldn't understand what people do when they're hungry. "When one is very hungry, one can go crazy."
She told them of a woman who killed her 7-month old baby to eat it with another woman. The clerk said it wasn't uncommon. "I can't condemn cannibalism. [...] It was common that people went to a fresh grave and dug up a body to eat meat."
International aid helped the country get over the famine, but not before it killed over 300,000 people.
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