10年3月23日 00:51
大米再次从北韩人民的餐桌上消失. 饥荒再度降临, 可能会像90年代那样, 上百万人被饿死. 那些有勇气穿越带刺铁丝网和巡逻守卫溜到中国的人, 脸上刻满了绝望. 与其说寻找自由,他们来到这里只是为了填饱肚子. <Times>报在位于中国的一间房子里采访了4位最近刚穿越边境来到这的妇女. 她们描述了在日益临近的饥荒威胁之下, 现在北韩境内的绝望境况. 她们当中最年轻的一位只有16岁, 上个月刚从冰冻的河面逃过来. 其她三位则都是50多岁, 去年就逃过来了, 并且闭口不谈她们是如何逃过来的: 因为她们还要回去帮助她们的家人. 外面下着雪, 在这间离边境不远的不知名的公寓里, CHOI KUM OK蹲在地上. 当提到她还在北韩的儿子, 她眼中充满泪水: “我来这挣钱就是为了给他治病凑医药费. 我必须给他送吃的过去, 否则他就要挨饿了.” 当回忆到90年代, 粮食歉收而造成十分之一的人挨饿时, 她捂着脸抽泣着. 她说, “我不想说那时候的事”. 90年代的饥荒令她失去了一位至亲. 身为劳动党党员以及做过保卫工作的她, 无法理解她仍旧崇拜的领袖们会如此彻底地背弃他们的人民. 因为平壤当局下令射杀逃北者以及中国方面已经对不断到来的难民失去耐心,来自朝鲜的难民潮近年来萎缩成了三三两两的小规模逃难. 极少数人虽过关斩将成功结束了这段危险的旅程, 却生活在持续不断的恐惧之中. 他们中多数打算在中国待上几周或几个月, 有了点积蓄之后就带着钱回家. 少数想去韩国. 他们确信饥荒的到来是早晚的事, 因此冒险越境来逃难. 他们面临的饥荒实际上是因为”青黄不接”, 或者说是4月左右, 地里的麦子还没熟, 而存粮已经不多了. 有人说:” 这个时候是最有可能开始爆发饥荒的.” 有些人已经因营养不良而生命垂危, 这位妇女说. 过去一段时间虽然吃的不是很充足, 但一直持续供应, 因为90年代饥荒之后政府放松了对自由市场的禁令. 但是在去年11月, 政府采取了发行新币兑换旧币的政策(这段政策大家都知道就不翻了). 上周, 负责此次货币改革的掌管财政的部长被枪决. CHOI女士说:” 那天中午我们才听说换钱的事, 所以我们只好5小时内赶在银行关门之前去换钱. 好多人因为没换钱倾家荡产. 黑市关掉之后, 食品就没再流通. 商人们没动力去卖那些现在已经是无价的东西, 而是囤积米和油来应对他们要面临的饥荒. 为了发泄失望和不满, 许多人把攒下的钱通通扔掉 16岁的圆脸女孩SongHee说: “ 有些人把钱扔进河里. 甚至还听说一个人把他的钱给烧了,钱上面有金日成的头像, 所以说这就像你在烧伟大领袖—这是犯罪. 那个人被处决了. 这件事是真的, 就在清津港.” 无论真伪, 这传言反映出人们前所未有的对政权的不满: 一个西方世界正在想法防备的, 拥有核武器的流氓政权 在这个国家, 生存等价于服从, 伟大领袖金日成和他儿子, 敬爱的领袖金正日, 被奉若神明. 几乎无法听到反对的声音. 然而, 这次货币改革却大失民心. 一位妇女说: “ 人们都在抱怨(这项政策). 不像以前了, 现在大家都有自己的想法.” [ 本帖最后由 Omnipotentgod 于 2010-3-23 11:37 编辑 ]
10年3月22日 23:20
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?”