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朝鲜的鬼魂

Dec 30, 2015 Yuriko Koike

东京——对多数人来说，新一年的到来促使他们反思哪些应该保持、哪些需要改变。但朝鲜人除外。在这个愚昧的国家，“新年决策”的权利不属于普通民众。他们的未来完全取决于最高领导人金正恩，并且往往伴随着冷酷与偏执的剥夺。

朝鲜人忍受的苦难很多都不为外人所知。比如每年秋天被西南季风吹到日本海的神秘的“鬼船”。这些船粗糙、狭小（长约10米），除了最基本的渔具以外几乎没有任何其他设施。其中有些空无一人，有些则携带着身份不明的男性尸体。仅上月一个月就发现了13艘这样的小船和26具尸体（其中多数都已大体腐烂）。2014年一年，就发现了超过60艘这样的小船。

有些船及船上物品印有韩语标识。其中一条带有朝军325部队的手写标志。另一条船上有一块破布，似乎曾经是一面朝鲜国旗。再加上破旧且缺乏设备，这些船属于朝鲜似乎没有多少怀疑。

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Richard Solomon Jan 5, 2016

Other pundits have claimed that NK's food production has improved in recent years with the advent of more private farming and money lending. With such contradictory information it is hard to know what is really going on there. But then that has always been the challenge in dealing with NK. As long as China, primarily, and other countries to a lesser extent continue to buck up NK these mysteries and the uncertainty about the country will continue. So will the risk of its engaging in more problematic behavior like detonating nuclear weapons, flying rockets out over the Japan Sea, etc.
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j. von Hettlingen Jan 2, 2016

Yuriko Koike points out the acute food shortages in North Korea, by reporting on the horrid discovery of a dozen "ghost ships" washing ashore in Japan since October. They are "crude, small (about ten meters in length)" vessels with bad engines, totally ill-equipped for rough seas. Some of them were empty, some carried dead bodies. Some even landed on the deserted beaches of the Russian far east.
The contents on board led to the speculation that they were North Korean fishing boats that had strayed dangerously far from land in a desperate effort to increase the country’s catch. The fishermen probably starved to death, as their boats - mostly simple motorised vessels - couldn't make it to shore. The young, unruly leader, Kim Jong-un, has put a high priority on fishing as a way of earning hard currency and providing a sustainable food source that is not reliant on harvests. But much of them are for export - to China.
This summer North Korea is seeing a severe drought, that may cause famine, as food production has halved. Many fishing boats had been sent to the sea off the east coast of the Korean peninsula recently, just in time for the prime season of squid, sandfish and king crab. The area around the Sea of Japan is known for its rich fishing grounds. Defectors say that North Korea's 1.2 million strong army units and security agencies are running many businesses, from mining gold to catching fish off the coasts, with civilians doing the heavy lifting.
Fishing is a vital industry in a country where millions cannot find enough to eat. The number of hungry people has more than doubled in the past two decades, rising to 10.5 million in 2014 from 4.8 million in 1990, according to a FAO report . It is hardly possible for the regime "to conceal the country’s abysmal food shortages." This "advanced indoor vegetable-farming facility near Pyongyang" may just be window dressing. Even though "private production" is tolerated, but there is little farmers can do to combat drought.
North Korea suffered famine in the 1990s and has relied on international food aid since. But support for North Korea has fallen sharply in recent years, because it didn't allow humanitarian workers to monitor food distribution to the civilians, since the regime had its own priorities. It remains to be seen what China will do if famine in North Korea sets in. The author says, "Japan could take advantage of the strains in that relationship to make some headway in other talks, say, on the nuclear issue." Yet, as unpredictable as Kim Jong-un is, nobody knows whether he is "able and willing to act in his country’s real interests."
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Steve Hurst Dec 30, 2015

As Kim appears unreasonable it is hard to have faith in reasoning being effective. As Kim does not appear to have the care of his citizens at heart it is hard to think he has the care of the missing Japanese citizens at heart. Let us hope they are not being used for comfort
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