Main content

The famine in North Korea

Communist North Korea suffered a devastating famine in the 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Hundreds of thousands of people died of starvation.

Communist North Korea suffered a devastating famine in the 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union which had been one of the country's main supporters. Hundreds of thousands of people died of starvation. Some estimates put the death toll at more than two million. Josephine Casserly has been hearing from Joseph Kim, who was a child in North Korea in the 1990s, about the struggles of his family.

Joseph has written a book about his experience called Under the Same Sky.

Photo: North Korean boys at a kindergarten in Pyongyang pose for a World Food Programme Emergency Food Assistance photographer in 1997. Their thin arms and legs, knobby knees and distended abdomens show that they are seriously malnourished. (Credit: Susan North/AFP/Getty Images)

Available now

9 minutes

Last on

Thu 8 Jul 2021 02:50GMT

Broadcasts

  • Wed 7 Jul 2021 07:50GMT
  • Wed 7 Jul 2021 11:50GMT
  • Wed 7 Jul 2021 17:50GMT
  • Thu 8 Jul 2021 02:50GMT

Podcast