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North Korea slashes food rations to 150 grams of rice per day. One hundred grams of rice produces about 250-350 calories(r/worldnews)
The article isn’t clear on what this food ration is exactly. It’s probably rice in Pyongyang, but most of the countryside is probably getting very low quality imported corn (maize). This has been a chronic problem for decades. Rice is always preferable over corn, but at 150g, neither is doing much for anyone. Additionally, one should remember that the vast majority of people outside of the cities are probably getting nothing unless they are in the military or have a secure position. Many of the political prisoner camps were “disbanded” in the 1990s, but this just meant taking down the barbed wire. These communities are still treated as prisoners, and get zero rations. What little they might get is probably stolen by the state security forces monitoring them. Still, they have the opportunity to grow kitchen gardens, which is small consolation when grain is still not available. The aid workers are not allowed into much of the interior to personally distribute food, and most of the donations end up going to the military.
So the article, while helpful in some sense, fails to communicate exactly what food is being distributed and the vast level of disparity between city and country. At least the piece communicates the dire need for aid that still exists and the importance of addressing a growing famine that sounds like it could rival (or top) the one from the early 1990s.
EDIT: Interested in learning more? The best book on the subject. $4.75 used on Amazon. The best summer reading deal you’ll find this side of the DMZ.
EDIT 2: I’m gonna throw this link in here, too, because my original comment with it is going to get buried thanks to the downvotes for the guy I was responding to and I think that people should see this… Watch this footage. With sound on. It’s only 30 seconds. She doesn’t know she’s being filmed. Probably the most moving and important footage I’ve ever seen from North Korea. And you thought the Vice Guide was bad…