朝鲜疑爆发大饥荒 民众逃亡中国

世界粮食计划声称, 朝鲜的食品问题正在变得越发尖锐. 一位发言人说:” 粮食缺口越大, 情况就越糟糕.” 那些逃跑的人在饥饿和穷困潦倒带来的绝望和对伟大全能领袖的信仰之间挣扎. Jeong Hee Ok 震惊于中国那么多批评金正日的声音. “ 人们都在骂他.这样太让我失望了. 我从小就被教育说他是这个世界上最好最和蔼可亲的人.” 还在国内时, 他们都在政治小组讨论会上得知金正日会有一个继承人: 他26岁的儿子金正银. Jeong Hee Ok说:” 他很年轻, 连30岁都不到, 而且很聪明. 我们对此很高兴, 因为他会带来新的思想.” 为了庆祝继承人的生日, 1月18号配给了更多的食物, 甚至是大米和一点点油. Jeong Hee Ok 打算挣够女儿婚礼的钱之后就溜回去. “我的国家很不错. 在中国这如果想要孩子就必须花钱, 但我们能免费生孩子.” Choi女士说她身边认识的人都相信党的领导. 但随即她眼神一偏. “ 他们相信这一套是因为他们根本不知道外面世界什么样. 没人跟他们说这些. 年轻人知道得多一点.” LiMiHee 最有恃无恐, 大概是因为她的大儿子已经死在了劳改营. “ 中国是个可以生活下去的好地方. 我从没想过要回去. 什么时候要是北韩人也能过上中国这样的生活, 那就太好了. 人们在被吓倒之前, 都在抱怨(这个政权). 但自从90年代饥荒死掉很多人而又没人对此有看法之后, 环境就变了.” “我们吃不到东西, 但我们知道外面的人有东西吃. 在中国, 人们会把剩饭扔掉, 而我们已经很长时间都见不到白米了. 这就像天堂和地狱的区别.” 说到这, 不像其他人那样只是叹气, Li女士自信地提高了声调. “所有北韩人都知道就算在日本占领时期, 他们的日子也没过得如此之差.” 她停顿了一下. “ 我儿子觉得会有什么大事发生.” 然后她表达了不再回去的决心: ”我再也不信他们那套了. 人民需要改变, 而这个金将军一点好事没干. 凭什么相信他儿子就能干得更好?”

Once again, rice has disappeared from tables in North Korea. A famine looms and — as happened in the 1990s — millions could die. Desperation is stamped on the faces of those few who have braved barbed-wire fences, armed guards and patrols to slip into neighbouring China. They seek food over freedom. The Times met four women in a safe house in China this week who fled recently across the frontier. They described despair in North Korea at the growing prospect of starvation in the Stalinist state. The youngest, only 16, crossed the frozen river last month. The other three, in their 50s, left last year and were tight-lipped about how they got out because they must go back to help the families they left behind. While snow falls outside, Choi Kum Ok squats on the floor of an anonymous apartment not far from the border. Her eyes fill with tears as she talks of the son she had to leave behind. “I came over to earn money for his medical care. I need to get him food or he will starve.” She covers her face and sobs as she remembers the 1990s, when harvests failed and up to 10 per cent of the population starved. She lost a sibling. “I don’t want to talk about it,” she says. A former security guard and member of the elite ruling Workers' Party, she cannot understand how the leaders that she still worships could have failed their people so completely. The flow of refugees from North Korea has slowed to a trickle in recent years, as Pyongyang has issued shoot-to-kill orders to guards, and China has lost patience with the arrivals. Beijing — nervous about instability across its border — props up the nuclear-armed regime with oil and food. The few who have made the dangerous journey live in constant fear of discovery. Most plan to spend a few weeks or months in China to build up savings to take home. A few want to go to South Korea. They risked the crossing to survive the famine they believe is now imminent. The crisis they face now is the “barley hump”, or the barren period around April when rice stocks run out and barley has yet to be harvested. One said: “This is the most dangerous period. This is when I’m afraid we will start to see people begin to starve.” Some are already dying from malnutrition, the women said. Food had been available, if not plentiful, since the Government relaxed the ban on free markets after the 1990s famine. In late November, however, the Government abolished old banknotes and introduced a new currency at the rate of 100 old won to one new. The maximum people could change was 100,000 won. Private savings, such as they were, were wiped out. The North Korean minister held responsible for the reform was executed by firing squad last week. Mrs Choi said: “I heard about the currency decision at midday. So we had only until the banks closed about five hours later to change our money. A lot of people lost everything.” Food disappeared overnight as the black markets closed. Traders had no incentive to sell now-worthless products; better to hoard their rice and oil for the times of need they knew lay ahead. Venting their frustrations, many people with savings threw them away. Song Hee, a round-faced 16-year-old, said: “Some tossed the money into the river. I even heard one man burnt his notes. The money has the face of Kim Il Sung on it, so it’s like you’re burning the Great Leader — and that’s a crime. The man was executed. Really, it’s a true story. It happened in Chongjin city.” True or apocryphal, the rumour reflects an unprecedented sense of dissatisfaction with the leadership of a rogue nuclear power that the West is trying to corral. In a country where obedience equals survival and where Kim Il Sung, the late Great Leader, and Kim Jong Il, his son and successor, the Dear Leader, are revered as divine, opposition is almost unheard of. The currency reform, however, was deeply unpopular. One woman said: “People complained. It’s not like it was. Everyone has an opinion.” Such grumbling is voiced only among those who trust one another. Song Hee said: “If people hear you, then you get sent to prison.” Jeong Hee Ok says she finds it difficult to believe government pledges that reforms will succeed by 2012 — the centennial of the birth of the Great Leader. “I am able to eat three times a day in China and I think about my daughters every time I eat.” Li Mi Hee, 56, waded through a freezing river to China, where she cares for an elderly man and makes 500 yuan (£50) a month — the equivalent of 10,000 won. “My son tells me people are already dying of hunger again," she says. "In the 1990s I would see dead bodies lying in the streets and now this could happen again.” She sends back anything she can. “I hear from my son. He tells me he has no food. He will starve. I have to do something.” The World Food Programme says that the food situation is getting more acute. A spokesman said: “With even more food shortages, the situation could deteriorate even further.” Those who have left are torn between an enduring belief in the omnipotence of their leaders and despair at their poverty and hunger. Jeong Hee Ok was shocked by criticisms of Kim Jong Il in China. “People curse him. It’s so upsetting. Since I was a child I learnt he was the kindest and the best person.” Before they left, all had attended political sessions at which they learnt that Kim Jong Il was to have a successor: his 26-year-old son, Kim Jong Un. Jeong Hee Ok said: “He is very young, not even 30, and very intelligent. We are happy because he will bring new ideas.” To celebrate the birthday of the heir-apparent, extra food rations were distributed on January 18 — even rice and a little oil. Jeong Hee Ok plans to slip back after making money to pay for her daughter’s wedding. “My country is good. Here in China if you want a child you have to pay, but we can have children for free.” Mrs Choi says everyone she knows believes in the leadership. But then her eyes slide away. “They believe because they don’t know what it’s like outside. No one tells them. The younger people know more.” Li Mi Hee is the least afraid, perhaps because her eldest son died in a labour camp. “China is a great place to live. I never want to go back. When North Koreans can live like China, that will be so good. People are complaining. Before they were scared, but things have changed since the 1990s when so many people died and said nothing. "We can’t eat, but we know people outside can. In China, they throw away rice, while we haven’t seen white rice for so long. It’s like the difference between Heaven and Earth.” Unlike the other women, who whispered, Mrs Li raises her voice with confidence. “All North Koreans know that even during the Japanese occupation they didn’t live in such terrible conditions.” She pauses. “My son thinks something might happen.” And then she gives voice to thoughts that mean she can never return. “I don’t believe any more. The general [Kim Jung Il] is doing a bad job and people want change. Why will the son do better?”