North Koreans have revealed that entire families are starving to death under Kim Jong Un‘s rule as the dictator focuses on nuclear weapons instead of feeding his nation.
Civilians trapped inside North Korea say they have watched mothers, unable to work due to sickness, die of starvation before their children succumbed to the same fate.
They say that Kim has used the Covid-19 pandemic as a way to re-exert more control over his civilians – cracking down on those caught smuggling food into North Korea to sell at markets or anyone who goes close to the border.
For those who are caught even approaching the border, they are shot dead as part of state executions.
Witnesses say they have watched four people being lined up at a time before being pummelled with bullets.
North Koreans say they have become so desperate – with many watching their neighbours and their children die of starvation – that only an invasion of their country would end their agony.
‘Only with a war, and by getting rid of the entire leadership, can we survive,’ Chan Ho, not his real name, tells the BBC. ‘Let’s end this one way or another.’
Chan Ho, a construction worker who lives in a border village in North Korea, says he has watched people, including a mother and her two young children, starve to death.
He says another mother in his village became so sick that she was unable to work and her children tried in vain to earn enough money to buy food by begging on the streets. But all three family members died of starvation within weeks.
He added that one soldier he knows was discharged from the military because he was malnourished. He died within a week of leaving the army from starvation.
Ji Yeon, a mother who lives in the capital Pyongyang, says she and her family are constantly fighting starvation that is ripping through the city.
She used to sneak fruit and vegetables from the food shop where she worked and sell them at the market with her husband.
But since the pandemic, the government now searches their bags for any food meaning that a key source of income has gone.
This, coupled with the fact that the government has sealed the border from any food imports since the pandemic began, has meant thousands are starving to death.
‘I thought I was going to die in my sleep and not wake up in the morning,’ Ji Yeon says. ‘It’s a disaster. With no supplies from the border, people do not know how to make a living.’
The three North Koreans interviewed by the BBC revealed that during the height of the pandemic, civilians across towns and cities were not allowed to step foot outside their homes for weeks.
Many only survived because they were able to sneak out at night for food.
Experts believe that the death toll from Covid could be around 45,000 – much higher than the official toll of 74.
For those trapped inside the country that is being ravaged by starvation, they are angry that Kim Jong Un, instead of stocking up food markets and decreasing inflation, is spending state money on his nuclear weapons arsenal.
They feel they have been ‘tricked’ by the government. ‘This border closure has taken our lives back 20 years. We feel hugely betrayed,’ Ji Yeon says.
The country’s borders – which are key given that North Korea relies on imports – remain closed meaning that the government continues to cut off vital supplies for the starving civilians.
