Food Provision Scam

An interesting article on a rather interesting website talks about how farmers are being forced to not only give up their normal amount of production to the state, but are actually being forced to dip into what is supposed to be their own provisions to provide for another "national provision". Yet, they are not receiving food in return as one would expect for participating in a communal food program. The end of the article is what I found most interesting, as it declares that this is an example that the North Korean regime of Kim Jong-Il is falling apart, and that his dictatorship is trying to retain control that is slowly slipping away. Granted this is from a defector's news website, but it brings up the same issues we were discussing in class, about whether or not there really is a shift in control, or if the regime and society is changing.

I would recommend checking out the website, it is actually fascinating, there are defectors' stories, news articles, cartoons, and anything and everything that has to do with North Korea. Though it needs to be taken with a grain of salt, it is coming straight from the people who hated their situation enough to leave, and it is possible that the site is full of assumptions of what is going on in North Korea, as they may not actually know.