South Korean rice Production Hits 23-Year Low. Where is the famine?

Holy cow! Because of typhoons and reduced sunlight (extra cloudy summer?) South Korea had its lowest harvest of rice in 23 years. This year's harvest was 9.7% smaller than last year's. Not only that but, accoring to the Donga Ilbo, the quality of the harvest was lower:

“Along with the decrease in the production, the quality is low in general as the grains tend to not be fully ripe,” said Director of National Agricultural Products Quality Management Service, Lee Soo-hwa.

Well, it looks like we are in for a year of famine unless international aid can be mustered to save the poor families of Korea from starvation. The United States should work with nations in the region to provide food aid.... Oops, I forgot: South Korea isn't run by a bunch of self-isolated, evil commies so we will all have enough to eat (more than enough, really) despite a bad harvest:

The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry said the poor crop would do no harm to rice supply since the government has 8.42 million seom of rice stock and Korea is required to import at least 1.43 million seom of rice to meet the minimum market access (MMA) commitment level according to the agreement of the Uruguay Round. The domestic demand is expected to be 33.74 million seom while the supply is 40.76 million seom.

So when we hear about floods and droughts causing famine up north, take a moment and think about reality. Does the DMZ divide Korea into different climate zones? I think not. The real problem isn't Mother Nature. The real problem is the ruling clique in Pyongyang.

Comments

[angus]

yb: you might have also added that there has never been a famine in a democratic society in modern times. Despite the economic and environmental problems of the 1930's there was not mass starvation in north america or western europe. the last one i can think of would have been the potato famine in ireland. but then again ireland in the 1840's was hardly democratic, nor particularly advanced. and there are some historians who argue that ireland was a net exporter of food at that time, which would make the famine a matter of policy, incompetence or neglect. the odd thing is that mass starvation keeps cropping up in totalitarian societies, [eg: the ukraine 1930's, china 1950-60's, north korea 1990's]whether by intent or sheer incompetence. too bad these muddled headed young nationalists here can't grasp this.

[Jason Barker]

You made a hear/here error in the rice article.

You also used the word "click" in place of the proper word "clique".

Shame on you, English teacher. What are you teaching these poor Koreans?

J

[The Marmot]

Don't you hate it when you get spell-checked by your readers?

[The Yangban]

To make matters worse, Jason is a buddy of mine from NC.

OK, I will edit the post and fix the problem. Thank God I teach conversation. The kids can tell how bad I spell.

[The Yangban]

"CAN'T"