By ANDY JACKSON
Marmot??s Hole Guest Blogger
How bad is the damage in the USA from Hurricane Katrina?
So bad that even the North Koreans are offering their sympathy:
North Korea’s Red Cross Society sent a message of sympathy to the hurricane-ravaged United States on Saturday, in a rare gesture toward a country the communist state has called “evil” led by a “political imbecile…”
“In the message, the society expressed sympathy with the USA Red Cross in connection with the great disaster suffered by those areas due to the hurricane,” the North’s official KCNA news agency said.
“(The Red Cross Society) hoped that they would recover from it and the living of the inhabitants in the afflicted areas return to normal as early as possible,” KCNA said referring to the message.
Now, just in case you were wondering:
There was no mention of an offer of recovery assistance.
I guess Pyeongyang learned its lesson from 1984.
Following floods in the South that year, the North Koreans decided to score some propaganda points by offering them food and other aid. They expected the South Koreans to decline the offer and (according to Bradley Martin’s Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader) were horrified when Seoul accepted it. The inefficient North Korean agricultural system had already been teetering for years, if not decades and they never recovered from the depletion of food reserves and other resources. Soon after that the spring hunger returned to North Korea in earnest.
When the agricultural system finally collapsed in the mid 1990s, many North Koreans outside of the elite circles of Pyeongyang had already suffered a decade of undernourishment and were thus quick to fall to the famine.
Yes, the aftermath of Katrina looks pretty bad but, less than a week after it hit, most people stranded by the storm have been either evacuated or at least provided with food and water on site. The current man-made North Korean disaster is two decades long and counting.
9 Comments
I really want to read that book.
Oh. I saw some North Koreans today at the games held in Incheon. They…were…so..weird.
Sorry. I gave you the wrong link.
Wow, somebody used the recent hurricane for a quick swipe at North Korea. I’m impressed.
Despite the massive failures of the government and economy in North Korea, one must face the fact that northern Korea was not agriculturally productive before the communist takeover and relied on the southern part of the country for food. Moreover, a comparison with the US, with its vast resources and megafarms is even more ridiculous.
There is a comparison to be made, however. The US government handled this affair about as well as the North Koreans would.
At least the Iraqis and Afghanis can rest assured that they are being treated as well as Americans would be in a similar situation.
Talk is cheap; show me the money!
I saw a shirt recently that said, “Show me the Monet.”
Ha…ha..HA!
Since the NORK RC undoubtedly only acted after being directed to do so by the self-described little turd himself, this is at best an exercise in political posturing; at worst schadenfreude
“Despite the massive failures of the government and economy in North Korea, one must face the fact that northern Korea was not agriculturally productive before the communist takeover and relied on the southern part of the country for food. Moreover, a comparison with the US, with its vast resources and megafarms is even more ridiculous.” Hah ha ha, yes, how dare you malign the Worker’s Paradise, capitalist roader, imperialist toady! One day Marmot and his running dog lackeys will beg for mercy beneath Chairman Kim’s bootheel!
Sperwer, I think you are jumping to conclusions. I don’t think it’s undeniable that KJI has a direct hand in every little thing every DPRK official says to the outside world. I think it’s probably more likely the case that the DPRK officials make statements with the assumption that they are following party line, and often sticking to the most dogmatic Worker’s Party ideology to stay “safe”. This is just my conjecture of course, but that probably explains DPRK’s insane and inconsistent reactions…
In other news, DPRK has offered US$100,000 in counterfeit US currency to aid the disaster victims. A disaster relief team with supplies of opiates will be sent as well.