Pyongyang, North Korea
The World Food Program was forced to cut shipments of food to famine-stricken North Korea this week when the chronically underfunded agency ran out of money for the region. About 3 million people, mostly children and the elderly, have lost their food rations, and another 1.5 million could be cut off in a few months. Under the repressive rule of dictator Kim Jong Il, North Korea has been slowly starving since the mid-1990s, and thousands of people have fled across the border to China. WFP official Rick Corsino warned that the new cutback would bring “acute suffering on a massive scale.”
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
The Trial: 'sharp' legal drama with a 'clever' scriptThe Week Recommends Channel 5's one-off show imagines a near future where parents face trial for their children's crimes
-
Riefenstahl: a 'gripping and incrementally nauseating' documentaryThe Week Recommends Andres Veiel's nuanced film examines whether the controversial film director was complicit in Nazi war crimes
-
Dianaworld: the 'cultural phenomenon' behind the People's PrincessThe Week Recommends 'Very fine' book examines the cultural groups who once admired her, and the legacy she left behind
