"SEOUL (Reuters) -
Soaring global food prices and reluctant donors are pushing North Korea back towards famine, which could see the
secretive government turn even more repressive to keep control, a paper released on Wednesday said."
Well,
food prices are soaring, 5% annually in the USA compared to wage increases, just over 3%. I suspect the increase in
food prices is mainly due to gas price increases, it just costs more to produce and transport the food now.
I really don't know much about North Korea and it's relationship to soaring food prices. I guess the
poorer one is already, the harder it is to adjust to price increases. The article goes on to say that the cost of
2.2 pounds of rice is equal to 1/3 of the average workers monthly income. Ok, well, I buy and eat rice. I just
bought a 25 pound sack of the highest grade of Thai rice for $20, that's .80 per pound. I'm friendly with my
local Cambodian grocer and we talked about the price of rice. He's telling me that due to the supply chain we are
paying less for Thai rice at the moment than the Thais are paying. He's not short of rice. So, in North Korea, we
can deduce sort of that the average worker there earns 6.6 pounds of rice X .80 per month = US $5.28. Assuming he
has no non-working wife and no children, he can feed himself for about two weeks I would reckon. He can't rebel,
he's too physically weak.
If lil Kim were smart he'd abandon his militaristic stance, his nuclear
weapons program, open his border, and ask the world for help.
Bookmarks