Question

BIG TIME HELP!!!!
What issues are people of North Korea facing?

Answer 1

@Mertsj @ganeshie8 @Luigi0210 @onegirl @Preetha @Peter14 @prettyboy20202 @allopersonwhat @SnuggieLad @Kitt020912

Answer 2

A desperate picture of the health of North Korea's population is painted by a report describing a country of stunted children, where the hungry eat poisonous plants and pigfeed, amputations are conducted without anaesthetic and doctors are paid in cigarettes.

Almost two decades after it was hit by a famine that killed an estimated 2 million people, North Korea again faces widespread food shortages and is unable to provide even basic healthcare for its people, according to the report, published today by Amnesty International.

The human rights organisation accuses the North Korean regime of systematic neglect and calls on the international community to intervene to prevent a humanitarian disaster.

Based on interviews with aid workers and North Korean defectors, the report says hospitals lack essential equipment and drugs, which forces the sick to treat themselves with medicines bought from markets. Major operations are routinely conducted without anaesthetic, while malnutrition has paved the way for a tuberculosis epidemic.

"North Korea has failed to provide for the most basic health and survival needs of its people," said Catherine Baber, Amnesty International's deputy director for the Asia-Pacific region. "This is especially true of those who are too poor to pay for medical care."

According to the latest World Health Organisation (WHO) figures, North Korea spent just ¢50 (32p) per person a year on healthcare – a tenth as much as Burma.

The report identifies children, elderly people and pregnant women as "particularly vulnerable to food insecurity and malnutrition due to their dietary needs".

The state's failure to feed its people has produced a generation of stunted children, with almost half of under-fives suffering from the condition, it says.

Last year Unicef said that between 2003 and 2008, 45% of North Korean children under five were stunted, while 9% suffered from wasting and a quarter were underweight.

The report says many hospitals lack essentials, such as sterilised needles. It also cites cases of major surgery being carried out without anaesthetic.

Hwang, a 24-year-old man, described how his left leg had been amputated from the calf down without anaesthetic after he crushed his ankle in a fall. "Five medical assistants held my arms and legs down to keep me from moving," he said. "I was in so much pain that I screamed and fainted from the pain. I woke up a week later in a hospital bed."

Doctors are routinely paid in cigarettes and alcohol, while the lack of medicines is forcing the sick to buy drugs, often of the wrong type and dosage, from private traders. "This is especially worrying as North Korea fights a tuberculosis epidemic," Baber said.

The report attributes the return of widespread TB infection to poor nutrition and healthcare. At least 5% of North Korea's 23 million people are sufferers, it said, while the WHO estimates 15,000 people died from the disease in 2007.

Other defectors offer graphic evidence of a health service in crisis, contradicting official claims that the country has properly funded, free and universally accessible healthcare. "People in North Korea don't bother going to the hospital if they don't have money, because everyone knows that you have to pay for the service and treatment," said a 20-year-old woman. "If you don't have money, you die."

The situation has worsened since last year's currency revaluation, which wiped out private savings and sparked rapid inflation, leaving many people unable to afford food.

Good Friends, a relief organisation, said the price of rice doubled and thousands starved to death in January and February in one province alone.

Hunger is forcing people to risk their lives. Park, a 27-year-old man, said he became seriously ill after hunger drove him to look for food in the mountains. "I almost died eating poisonous mushrooms," he said. "I also ate food we normally feed to pigs."

Answer 3

@some_someone

Answer 4

@AbijayBritish
Please don't just copy-paste from http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/15/north-korea-health-crisis-amnesty

Answer 5

Okay was just trying to help =(

Answer 6

and its good, but at least put Source: .....

Answer 7

Okay im kinda new though so im not use to the site as yet

Answer 8

Yah thts wat I was gunna do. It's a 70 point paper so getting caught plagiarizing wouldn't be good! :P

Answer 9

Thanks guys! I appreciate it! :) @some_someone @AbijayBritish

Answer 10

wouldn't a reason be Kim Jong-Il

Answer 11

Would it?

Answer 12

Yes I think hes the main reason

Answer 13

The biggest problem the North Korean people face is lack of freedom.

Answer 14

Compare the Communist north with the free south. What is the difference? They are both Korean nations and used to be one nation.

Answer 15

Yes thts wat I was thinking but instead I get a whole article posted...lol

Answer 16

And then think of all the leftists in the USA that admire and adore Communist dictators such as Mao, Castro, and the little pot-bellied guy from North Korea.

Answer 17

lol

Answer 18

It's not funny.

Answer 19

And then remember the warning of Ben Franklin: He who would trade liberty for some temporary security, deserves neither liberty nor security."

Answer 20

If they had freedom they could elect leaders who would not spend all the resources on the military and the people could begin to escape starvation.

Answer 21

other than lack of freedom, they have a lack of food and allies

Answer 22

K thanks guys! I really apprciate everything! @Mertsj @Peter14 @AbijayBritish @some_someone Thanks!

Answer 23

I might be asking more questions if thts okay...

Answer 24

that's fine

Answer 25

The lack of freedom is the cause of the lack of food and allies. Besides they have China as an ally and a lot of good it does them. The Communists stick together.

Answer 26

they don't have china as an ally *as much* now. Have you heard about north korea as china's crazy uncle that they'd rather forget about?

Answer 27

Yes but you can't believe anything those Godless communists say.

Answer 28

By the way, @Mertsj you sure know a lot about Korea :)
Wow that is good :D

Answer 29

I don't really know anything about Korea. But I do know about freedom and I do know how willing people are these days to give up their freedom for a little bit of temporary security and I have been alive long enough to observe around the world where that leads EVERY TIME!!

Answer 30

K thank ya'll again! I really apprciate it!! :)

Answer 31

North Korea's facing a lot of issues. Depends on what you want to look at specifically. If you have questions, I can still try to help you out by answering them. Also, I've actually been there.

Answer 32

how did you do that?

Answer 33

Wow. Seriously?

Answer 34

Most people get in with a company licensed to run tours in North Korea. They still allow foreigners in, but the process isn't well known. For example, there are really no direct flights into the country if you're American. I had to get in via China.

Answer 35

Or if you work with the UN or a charity, they've let them in as well. If you're a journalist, that's a whole other process. And forget it if you're South Korean.

Answer 36

that would be an extremely interesting thing to do- I'm in China, so i'm halfway there already...

Answer 37

That's the best way to do it. China has direct flights via Beijing on Air Koryo -- the North Korean airline. You have to get a travel visa and all the paperwork first, though, for entry and exit. That's the part that takes awhile.