ASIA : KOREA : CANNIBALISM AND SEVERE FAMINE - OVER 10 THOUSAND DEAD

(IMAGE/SHARE AsiaNews) Agenzia Fides REPORT - It is estimated that a severe famine in the rural Korean provinces of North and South Hwanghae has caused the deaths of 10 000 people due to cannibalism and it is feared that such accidents may continue to increase. A report by Asia Press points out particularly shocking testimonies. Undercover journalists revealed that the population of the two poorest provinces confiscated foodstuffs for distribution in the capital Pyongyang. What is making the situation worse is the drought that has further reduced resources. This emergency has grown to the point that so many people have become crazy because of hunger and have committed acts of cannibalism to feed themselves. This is not the first time we read similar news about the Asian country concerning this dreadful phenomenon. This past May, the Institute for National Unification South Korea, received the news about a man executed for having eaten parts of one of his colleagues and tried to sell the rest of the body as mutton. Another was executed for killing 11 people and sold the bodies as pork. There are also incidents of cannibalism in the detention camps. It is believed that in the 90s a terrible famine, known as the Arduous March, killed between 240,000 and 3 million and a half people. The UN officials visited the area but according to local reporters they were not brought to the areas affected by famine. (AP) (Agenzia Fides 28/01/2013)

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