Leverage for the US in negotiations, but leftists already blaming US sanctions for human crisis.
As negotiations continue over President Trump’s demand that North Korea junk its nuclear weapons and missile programs, Kim Jong-un’s bargaining position ay be weakening. Reuters reports:
A heat wave in North Korea has led to rice, maize and other crops withering in the fields, “with potentially catastrophic effects”, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said on Friday.
The world’s largest disaster relief network warned of a risk of a “full-blown food security crisis” in the isolated country, where a famine in the mid-1990s killed up to three million people. It said the worrying situation had been exacerbated by international sanctions imposed due to North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs.
I am no fan of the IFRC. It’s role in the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians who seek to destroy it has been one-sided. So, it does not surprise me of Sanctions are blamed for potential famine. No mention of the diversion of NK’s very limited resources into expensive weapons programs, of course.
And they blame recent weather for the probem:
In a statement issued in Geneva, the IFRC said there had been no rainfall since early July as temperatures soared to an average 39 Celsius (102 Fahrenheit) across the country, whose official name is the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).
