Former President Jimmy Carter hast just returned from a visit to North Korea, which is suffering from a famine considered one of the greatest of modern times.
Carter reports that people are eating tree bark, grass, and leaves because of tremendous shortages of food, causing mass loss of life.
North Korea’s dictator, Kim Jong Il, has refused to cooperate with the six party talks attempting to negotiate an end of his nuclear threat to his neighbors. These nations include the US, Russia, China, South Korea, and Japan.
As a result, the Obama Administration is refusing to ship food stuffs to North Korea, despite the massive famine conditions that exist there.
Carter is criticizing that decision, stating that politics should not be connected to food supply availability, and that this action is a violation of human rights.
This is a very interesting viewpoint, and it gives one food for thought, no pun intended.
Should a nation use the weapon of basic human needs as a way to push a nation which has its people suffering, but has a recalcitrant government?
The tendency of the author is to agree with Carter, that the United States should immediately make food stuffs available, and stop making it a political issue. The people of North Korea are victims already of a terrible government, but the world should not abandon them and allow mass loss of life if they can have some input to prevent that!