March 28, 2024
Analysis

Why North Korea may be on the brink of another deadly ‘Arduous March’ famine

Sanctions, flooding, COVID-19 and other 2020 conditions look eerily similar to what caused the devastating 1990s famine

Economically stunted, battered by natural disasters and lacking foreign aid, today’s North Korea looks a lot like the North Korea of the mid-1990s — a time of famine known as the “Arduous March.”

North Korea was already struggling under the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” sanctions regime, and it’s now under further stress due to COVID-19. The DPRK claims it has zero cases of the virus as of July 30, but the country remains sealed off from the outside world in order to prevent it from spreading.

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