Seoul
While millions in North Korea starve, South Korea is sitting on tons of surplus rice, The New York Times reported this week. South Korea’s subsidies to rice farmers have encouraged massive overproduction in recent years, but recent governments have found cutting the subsidies to be politically impossible. The country has given some of the extra crop to North Korea, but many in Seoul oppose further donations because of North Korea’s threats of nuclear war. As the politicians dither, the mountain of rice grows. “The condition is very severe,” said Agriculture Ministry official Kim Hyun Soo. “We now have 1,500,000 metric tons in storage.”
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