# Cannibalism in North Korea Due to Famine? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 31, 2013, 11:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cannibalism-in-north-korea-due-to-famine/648902 "2013-01-31T11:11:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Sodalite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/34f0e0/32.png) [@Sodalite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sodalite)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2013, 11:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cannibalism-in-north-korea-due-to-famine/648902/1 "2013-01-31T11:11:01Z")
Mods, If there is already a thread on this or it’s in the wrong place do whatever you need to do with it. I just ran across [this](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2269094/North-Korean-parents-eat-children-driven-mad-hunger-famine-hit-pariah-state.html?ICO=most_read_module) while reading another article. I thought it had to be some kind of joke but I [Googled](https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&gl=us&tbm=nws&q=north+korea+cannibal&oq=north+korea+cannibal&gs_l=news-cc.3..43j43i400.2292.15435.0.16768.26.10.3.13.13.0.97.589.10.10.0...0.0...1ac.1.jjLXqLTLP7c#hl=en&safe=off&tbo=d&gl=us&tbm=nws&sclient=psy-ab&q=north+korea+cannibalism&oq=north+korea+cannibalism&gs_l=serp.3...15578.26578.0.27447.5.5.0.0.0.0.48.197.5.5.0...0.0...1c.1.RZp_nsB71H4&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&bvm=bv.41642243,d.eWU&fp=f696cf497a484799&biw=1280&bih=645) it and found more reports from different sources. Does anyone know if there is any truth in this at all or if it’s just propaganda? From linked article: > [@](#): > > The informant said the father killed his eldest daughter while his wife was away on business and then killed his son because he had witnessed the murder. > > When his wife returned the man told her they had ‘meat’ but she became suspicious and contacted officials who discovered part of the children’s bodies. > [@](#): > > Jiro Ishimaru, from Asia Press, which compiled a 12 page report, said: ‘Particularly shocking were the numerous testimonies that hit us about cannibalism.’ > [@](#): > > Another man was executed in May after murdering 11 people and selling the bodies as pork. I just find it very hard to believe that something like this is really happening with any frequency. Maybe I’m naive, but it just seems too far fetched. I’ve been wrong plenty of times before, though, so I’m asking you guys. What are the odds that this is real? ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Accident](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Mr.Accident](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Accident)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2013, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cannibalism-in-north-korea-due-to-famine/648902/2 "2013-01-31T11:28:03Z")
I wouldn’t be surprised. I’m not sure just how bad the drought and food situation is in NK, but I do know people have turned to cannibalism in the past when they have gotten desperate enough. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2013, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cannibalism-in-north-korea-due-to-famine/648902/3 "2013-01-31T11:45:11Z")
The place is horrible. People are being starved to death. The peasantry are really slave labor being worked to death to support the military. They don’t need concentration camps in North Korea, the whole place is a concentration camp, and the world stands by watching. ---
**Author:** ![Yorikke](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yorikke/32/4335_2.png) [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2013, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cannibalism-in-north-korea-due-to-famine/648902/4 "2013-01-31T14:25:12Z")
I don’t doubt it in the slightest. Their soldiers aren’t even fed well, you think the 90% of the country that are utterly destitute are eating well? ---
**Author:** ![crucible](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@crucible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crucible)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2013, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cannibalism-in-north-korea-due-to-famine/648902/5 "2013-01-31T14:47:30Z")
keeping the population in complete desolation seems a successful survival plan for many dictatorial governments. When the population begins to enjoy some degree of improved circumstances, they start to realize they might be able to get rid of the bastards and rule themselves. NK simply has too few resources and arable land to feed itself or to prosper. In a sense, a very exaggerated sense, they are West Virginia to South Korea’s Virginia. There is no lack of native mental ability there. They are fully capable of engineering atomic weapons, rockets, other military devices. If they were integrated back into ‘Korea’ as a whole, they could provide good reason for their agricultural support from the South. the fact is, though, that South Korea is immensely better off without them. ---
**Author:** ![crucible](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@crucible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crucible)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2013, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cannibalism-in-north-korea-due-to-famine/648902/6 "2013-01-31T14:48:53Z")
Every group of people, hungry enough, will eat human flesh. ---
**Author:** ![crucible](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@crucible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crucible)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2013, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cannibalism-in-north-korea-due-to-famine/648902/7 "2013-01-31T14:53:28Z")
One might use their circumstances as guidance when we impose trade and other financial restrictions on a country like Iran. If North Korea can continue to be a nuclear threat to its neighbors after 50 years of isolation, how much do you think we are accomplishing by trying to squeeze Iran? The only time we have any success with NK is when we offer them food in exchange for slowing down their nuclear building. I don’t know what we could offer Iran in exchange for slowing down or stopping their nuclear development. I doubt anything will, short of attack and invasion. That won’t happen unless Iran actually uses its capability against Israel or the US assets in the area. ---
**Author:** ![Morgenstern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2013, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cannibalism-in-north-korea-due-to-famine/648902/8 "2013-01-31T14:56:14Z")
> [@](#): > > Another man was executed in May after murdering 11 people and selling the bodies as pork. Looks like capitalism is gaining a foothold in NK. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2013, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cannibalism-in-north-korea-due-to-famine/648902/9 "2013-01-31T17:42:26Z")
I only have doubts about the story because this is the type of story that would spread well even if it’s fake, and it kinda dings my fakeometer a bit. I certainly think it’s possible, of course. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2013, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cannibalism-in-north-korea-due-to-famine/648902/10 "2013-01-31T17:56:08Z")
I don’t see why the USA and China don’t get together and take that government down. Surely China would prefer a prosperous, happy and unified neighbor to buy their products over what they have now…a dependent, hanger-on crazy state that floods its borders with refugees and asylum seekers. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2013, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cannibalism-in-north-korea-due-to-famine/648902/11 "2013-01-31T17:59:30Z")
If the North Korean government fell tomorrow, it would be a very long time before the country was unified, prosperous, and a real market for Chinese products. And China would have a much bigger flood of refugees in the meantime. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2013, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cannibalism-in-north-korea-due-to-famine/648902/12 "2013-01-31T18:02:05Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > If the North Korean government fell tomorrow, it would be a very long time before the country was unified, prosperous, and a real market for Chinese products. And China would have a much bigger flood of refugees in the meantime. Sure it might take awhile, kinda like it did with West and East Germany. But S Korea is a rich country, and there are tons of people that have relatives on either side that I am sure they would love to get back. I wonder how bad the culture shock would be for the North Koreans. Surely the younger generation has figured out how to get information from the outside somehow. ETA: about that flood of refugees…I suppose you may be right. I wonder how deep the indoctrination of North Koreans is to view S Korea as a mortal enemy/puppet of the US versus China being viewed as “friendly”. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2013, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cannibalism-in-north-korea-due-to-famine/648902/13 "2013-01-31T18:06:05Z")
About the only thing that would bring about a smooth(er) integration of North Korea into Civilization would be a series of massive plagues sufficient to wipe out at least 75% of the North Korean population. Then, maybe, China and South Korea could move in and stabilize things. Barring that… ---
**Author:** ![toofs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4491bb/32.png) [@toofs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toofs)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2013, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cannibalism-in-north-korea-due-to-famine/648902/14 "2013-01-31T18:10:46Z")
The more exposure of the atrocity that is North Korea, the better. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2013, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cannibalism-in-north-korea-due-to-famine/648902/15 "2013-01-31T18:14:49Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > Sure it might take awhile, kinda like it did with West and East Germany. But S Korea is a rich country, and there are tons of people that have relatives on either side that I am sure they would love to get back. I’m sure they do, but China doesn’t care about that. As a market for Chinese products, North Korea isn’t going to be much of anything any time soon. Doesn’t the former East Germany still lag behind West Germany in some ways, 20 years after reunification? I assume North Korea is in much worse shape. > [@](#): > > I wonder how bad the culture shock would be for the North Koreans. Surely the younger generation has figured out how to get information from the outside somehow. I’ve read that some word about the outside world has trickled back into the country via refugees, for example. But I don’t think it’s like China where people can travel and you can get around Internet censorship if you are motivated enough. North Korea has been mostly cut off from the world for 60 years. Whenever that ends, it’ll be a big shock. As far as the cannibalism thing goes- they’ve had a bunch of terrible famines in the last 20 years and I think they aren’t getting much international aid at this point. There were documented instances of cannibalism in China during the Great Leap Forward, and even if it’s hard to verify any one story, this kind of thing does happen if large numbers of people are starving and desperate. ---
**Author:** ![Sarabellum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sarabellum/32/3492_2.png) [@Sarabellum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarabellum)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2013, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cannibalism-in-north-korea-due-to-famine/648902/16 "2013-01-31T18:46:16Z")
I think 60 years of brainwashing (and short lifespans - there are very few people in North Korea now that were born before the Korean War) will make it very, very challenging to try to assimilate them back into a unified Korea. I don’t doubt that there’s cannibalism in North Korea right now. But I don’t know how reliable that bit is about the guy selling 12 people he murdered for meat. That seems pretty over-the-top. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2013, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cannibalism-in-north-korea-due-to-famine/648902/17 "2013-01-31T21:48:48Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > Sure it might take awhile, kinda like it did with West and East Germany. But S Korea is a rich country, and there are tons of people that have relatives on either side that I am sure they would love to get back… East Germany was a First World country compared to North Korea. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2013, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cannibalism-in-north-korea-due-to-famine/648902/18 "2013-01-31T21:52:36Z")
> [@toofs](#): > > The more exposure of the atrocity that is North Korea, the better. Sucks if you are the victim of that atrocity. ---
**Author:** ![voltaire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voltaire/32/313_2.png) [@voltaire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voltaire)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2013, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cannibalism-in-north-korea-due-to-famine/648902/19 "2013-01-31T22:16:35Z")
> [@crucible](#): > > One might use their circumstances as guidance when we impose trade and other financial restrictions on a country like Iran. If North Korea can continue to be a nuclear threat to its neighbors after 50 years of isolation, how much do you think we are accomplishing by trying to squeeze Iran? Obviously, the effectiveness of sanctions and isolation is highly dependent on cooperation with other nations, particularly those who border the nation in question. It also helps a lot if the target nation has one primary export that it heavily relies upon. N. Korea, having had the massive sugar-daddy in China on its border, and Iran, without such a blessing and heavily dependent on petroleum exports, couldn’t be much more different. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2013, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cannibalism-in-north-korea-due-to-famine/648902/20 "2013-01-31T23:28:24Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > I’m sure they do, but China doesn’t care about that. As a market for Chinese products, North Korea isn’t going to be much of anything any time soon. Doesn’t the former East Germany still lag behind West Germany in some ways, 20 years after reunification? I assume North Korea is in much worse shape. > > I’ve read that some word about the outside world has trickled back into the country via refugees, for example. But I don’t think it’s like China where people can travel and you can get around Internet censorship if you are motivated enough. North Korea has been mostly cut off from the world for 60 years. Whenever that ends, it’ll be a big shock. This is an interesting article touching on some of these issues I came across. And it’s from 2006! I wonder how accurate or relevant it is today. [http://www.cfr.org/east-asia/south-koreas-ties-china-japan-us-defining-new-role-dangerous-neighborhood/p9808](http://www.cfr.org/east-asia/south-koreas-ties-china-japan-us-defining-new-role-dangerous-neighborhood/p9808) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cannibalism-in-north-korea-due-to-famine/648902.md?page=2)