violentsalvation: GAT_00: Of all the people running this story we go with the goddamn Daily Fail?  Jesus farking Christ.

So it is actually a real story?

The source is considered legitimate.  From what Reddit dug up - the link they have is a pay site, so it was reposted - the source is Asia Press, which runs citizen reporters.  This is that link, the source of which is this.  The BBC has in the past used them as a source on NK activity, so I'm willing to consider this as provable as possible.

Full text:

Cannibal horror as 10,000 North Koreans starve
by: Michael Sheridan
From: The Times
January 28, 2013 12:00AM

A FATHER in North Korea is reported to have been executed by firing squad after murdering his two children to eat them during a "hidden famine" that may have killed more than 10,000 people last year.

In a litany of horrors documented by undercover reporters, another man dug up his grandchild's corpse for food and a third, driven mad by hunger, boiled his own child and ate the flesh.

The stories were collected by Asia Press, a specialist news agency based in Osaka, Japan, which has a network of "citizen journalists" inside North Korea and is regarded as credible.

Dozens of interviews and clandestine reports have led it to conclude that "considerable numbers of people" - probably more than 10,000 - have died in North and South Hwanghae provinces, south of Pyongyang, the capital.

North Korea has not officially confirmed any deaths. A government-supervised mission by the UN last September reported a food surplus in both provinces, yet the clandestine reporting depicts a pattern of misery and death while Kim Jong-un, the country's leader, spent lavishly on banquets and missile tests. One informant, an official in South Hwanghae, said: "In my village in May, a man who killed his own two children and tried to eat them was executed by a firing squad.

"While his wife was away on business he killed his eldest daughter and, because his son saw what he had done, he killed his son as well. When the wife came home, he offered her food, saying: 'We have meat.'

"But his wife, suspicious, notified the Ministry of Public Security, which led to the discovery of part of their children's bodies under the eaves."

In its detailed 12-page report, Asia Press identifies reporters and sources by pseudonyms. "Particularly shocking were the numerous testimonies that hit us about cannibalism," said the agency's Jiro Ishimaru.

Gu Gwang-ho, one of the reporters in North Korea, wrote: "There was an incident when a man was arrested for digging up the grave of his grandchild and eating the remains."

In May in Haeju, South Hwanghae's main city, a man who had killed 11 people and sold the meat as pork was executed by firing squad.

"In a village in Chongdan county, a man who went mad with hunger boiled his own child, ate his flesh and was arrested," said a mid-ranking official of the ruling Korean Workers Party.

These incidents reportedly took place as Mr Kim, 30, marked his ascent to power with a new image, a glamorous wife and two costly rocket launches.

Last week, he followed these with a defiant pledge to retaliate against the latest UN sanctions by staging a third nuclear weapons test "aimed at the United States".

Early last year, officials confiscated food from farm collectives in North and South Hwanghae to supply the army and reward the privileged residents of Pyongyang for their loyalty to the Kim dynasty, the undercover reporters say.

But then a drought struck and, from April to June, farmers and their families in these "breadbasket" provinces began to die.

"One family was completely wiped out, everyone died of starvation, while another family gave up hope of living and killed themselves," said Gu.

A hospital administrator said there was no wood for coffins or cremations, so the dead had been wrapped in straw mats and tipped into an unmarked common grave.

"The farming villages I visited from May to June were in such a tragic state that I had to cover my eyes," the party official added. "There was no food at all. Casting out elderly parents or abandoning children was nothing rare."

"Political waste" on celebrations and extra rations for Pyongyang were key factors, according to the reporters. Mr Kim, a plump, beaming figure, ordered new apartment blocks, imported equipment for a fairground and a dolphinarium, staged lavish festivities and appeared at a pop concert with his pregnant wife.

"The smooth transfer of power . . . was the top priority," according to the reporters. The famine in the Hwanghae provinces has passed its peak, the reports say. It is probable that when the UN team visited the area in the autumn, it was shown no evidence of it.

Japanese government sources say North Korea has developed a compact nuclear weapon that can fit on to a missile capable of reaching the US's west coast. The device may be equal in force to the atomic bomb that destroyed the city of Nagasaki in 1945, the sources told the Asahi Shimbun newspaper.

As Mr Kim celebrates his first year in power, it is clear thousands have paid for his adventures.

Additional reporting: Shota Ushio, Tokyo The Sunday Times

So, unconfirmed stories, but from a source considered to be credible.

Of all the people running this story we go with the goddamn Daily Fail?  Jesus farking Christ.

Shadowknight: sminkypinky: The US should invade and impose democracy - you know, like they did in afghanistan, iraq... They were so successful, I'm sure that it would be fine.
Hang on - no oil there - so fukem.

Not that you're not right, but don't forget that while China treats them like an unruly stepchild from a forgotten marriage most of the time, they do OFFICIALLY support them. Going in to NK would start WWIII.

China needs to stop protecting that asshole and crack down HARD. I wouldn't lose any sleep if there was a sudden purge in NK. If the UN had any balls, they'd state flat out that the government is offensive to the entire world and anyone who protects the status quo is equally guilty of the horrors being inflicted on the people.

F*ck China. They keep the house of horrors known as North Korea going. If China wanted to put an end to this evil insanity, they could do it in a month but they won't because China is just as evil a North Korea, just with more resources.

The US should invade and impose democracy - you know, like they did in afghanistan, iraq... They were so successful, I'm sure that it would be fine.
Hang on - no oil there - so fukem.

It takes a special kind of evil to sit in your palace being a fat fark while people outside are starving.

Rattle sabers. Run horrific stories of starvation. Get food aid.

I've seen this movie before.

Matthew Keene: Rumpertumpskin: ...would have approved.

[serialkillersink.net image 296x320]

This will be about the most disturbing thing you will ever read. You have been warned.Link

Ugh. I'm done, I really don't think I want to talk about any of this anymore.

DamnYankees: tonguedepressor: We await your verdict.

I guess I feel like eating a corpse after it has already died isn't really that horrible. It's taboo of course, but its not hurting anyone, and meat is meat. I think willingly eating yourself is 100 times worse.

We need to include the emotional equate of digging up and eating your own rotting child into the balance of the decision making.

If I had millions of dollars at my disposal I would seriously consider finding a way to kill this person by any means possible including doing it myself, if for no other reason than saving the 100's of thousands that await a slow death by hunger. ergghhh.

If they would be a little less, "we will build great missiles and bury you American pig lackey dogs!", and a little more "Um, look, like, our people are eating each other. You think you could help us out with some agriculture, electrical infrastructure and some irrigation techniques?", I'd be the first one over there with some books and a shovel.

OgreMagi: If the UN had any balls, they'd state flat out that the government is offensive to the entire world and anyone who protects the status quo is equally guilty of the horrors being inflicted on the people.

I'm more of the 'Let's fix our own problems first and to hell with the rest of the world in the meantime'-type but NK perpetuates crimes against humanity every minute of the day and it boggles my mind how we as a people allow it.
And by 'we' I mean the world.

I don't pretend to have any answers but something has to be done over there, by someone, sooner rather than later.
These are real people no different in essence than you or I.

sminkypinky: The US should invade and impose democracy - you know, like they did in afghanistan, iraq... They were so successful, I'm sure that it would be fine. Hang on - no oil there - so fukem.

For the youngsters here, it might be worth pointing out - you are referring to a war that already happened and is still going on. SK and NK are still at war. And the U.S. did fight on the side of South Korea.

And yes there is probably close to worldwide universal agreement that the people of South Korea are infinitely better off for it. SK -one of the most promising economies in the world today. NK - one of, if not the, worst.

Befuddled: F*ck China. They keep the house of horrors known as North Korea going. If China wanted to put an end to this evil insanity, they could do it in a month but they won't because China is just as evil a North Korea, just with more resources.

The Communist in China have turned everything they've touched into fark. The Korean War gave us this. You can thank them for the Khmer Rouge. For ruining Tibet. For supporting the Godawful junta in Burma which may have finally come to its senses. Not to mention screwing up Mainland China's businesses, religions, even ruined the Chinese characters by simplifying them but the kids still have to learn the traditional characters.

sminkypinky: The US should invade and impose democracy - you know, like they did in afghanistan, iraq... They were so successful, I'm sure that it would be fine.
Hang on - no oil there - so fukem.

Not that you're not right, but don't forget that while China treats them like an unruly stepchild from a forgotten marriage most of the time, they do OFFICIALLY support them. Going in to NK would start WWIII.

Dinner is served.

We should just start dropping food packages over there from HALO drop height; they may see it coming but they (probably) won't be able to do anything about it. I'm sure we've got plenty of MREs to spare...

Not that this would ever, you know, HAPPEN, but I do wonder about the possible ramifications of a major shift in political ties. Let's just say Lil' Kim grows a conscience, and decides he's sick of his people starving to death and resorting to cannibalism, so he comes out publicly and agrees to cooperate with the UN and NATO in exchange for aid.

Does China get frogy and march in troops? Do his own generals take him our for being weak, possibly before the move? I do remember him having to perform that "show of force" before his dad named him the heir apparent and shelled some apartments, so that's possible.

Just trying to play out this Tom Clancy-esque "What If" in my head.

I submitted this with a more Modest headline.

Meanwhile, in the most of the rest of the world it's the 21st century.

jayphat: PsiChick: ladyfortuna: We should just start dropping food packages over there from HALO drop height; they may see it coming but they (probably) won't be able to do anything about it. I'm sure we've got plenty of MREs to spare...

THIS.

/Invading won't work, but airlifting food? That, that is a use of our money I would approve of.

Nope. Because the government will claim they sent it.

Worse, they'll shoot down any planes (even ICRC planes) that try, and capture the pilots to use as bargaining chips (for weapons and ICBM construction materials, not food).

/unless the peasants find them before the military does
//then they'll be used as food

david_gaithersburg: PreMortem: david_gaithersburg: North Korea serves as a living reminder of why we should fear the so-called-progressives on left.

Ok, I'll bite...
What is a progressive then if people on the left aren't? If you think conservatives are forward thinking you're bat-shiat insane. Based on that statement alone you've already proven yourself to be ignorant.

.
A so-called-progressive in incapable of working with other parties, they believe that the only way anything can get done is through one-party rule, i.e. a dictatorship. They also believe that they, and only themselves without input from others, know what is best for everyone else.

Here is a Georgetown University professor who was given air time on CBS last night. Link This nut is a farking tenured professor teaching people!!!!! He believes that the Constitution should be scrapped since it runs counter to his dictatorial fantasies.

Sounds like how conservatives think, too. And they're worse about it, they say they want smaller government then demand government be in women's uteruses and people's bedrooms. They also want a Christian dictatorship, completely ignoring separation of church and state.

And would you make up your mind about where "progressive socialism" will take America? Is it the USSR, Greece, or North Korea? You guys can never make up your minds about anything.

SpaceBison: Meanwhile in 'murica.
cdn.ebaumsworld.com

I've read that a lot of people who escape N. Korea and resettle in the south end up with severe weight management issues.  Its like they're stuck in starvation prevention mode.

ladyfortuna: We should just start dropping food packages over there from HALO drop height; they may see it coming but they (probably) won't be able to do anything about it. I'm sure we've got plenty of MREs to spare...

THIS.

/Invading won't work, but airlifting food? That, that is a use of our money I would approve of.

david_gaithersburg: North Korea serves as a living reminder of why we should fear the so-called-progressives on left.

Those poor sots in Sweden and Norway. If they only knew that they were a few decades away from cannibalism.

BTW. I thought the right-wing talking point was that Greece was where we were headed. Is Greece just a midpoint on the way to NK?

TV's Vinnie: I kinda see a "Reagan Doctrine" in the works here.

Make Best Korea spend a buttload of money on rocket launches until they eventually run out of money after China finally cuts them off. Fatt Dingdongs ends up being deposed (and eaten), and all those refugees start spilling across the borders into China (which serves Bejing right after all these decades).

Really? That's the Reagan doctrine? Because it sounds an awful lot like the Osama Bin Ladin Doctrine where the U.S. spends itself into recession fighting the war on "terror." Bonus: we invade Iraq for no discernible reason.

tonguedepressor: DamnYankees: tonguedepressor: Eating your own children and digging up corpses for food is the most horrible thing that could ever happen. I don't care if a meteor came down and wiped out Australia its still not as bad as that act.

This is it. The pinnacle of grotesque human behavior, nothing can top this. Go ahead, try, it'll still fall short of eating your own children or eating brought up from their grave corpses.

There is one thing worse, and its described in Bloodlands, the book about the horrors in Eastern Europe between 1921 and 1945. It was so grotesque I put the book down for a while. For warning for people who don't want to see it:


*
*
*
*
*

People in the Ukraine were so starving during the Holodomor that at an orphanage, the people running the plan saw a bunch of kids huddled on a bed. When they went to see what they were huddled around, they saw that 5 or 6 boys were eating the legs of another buy, who was still alive. The little boy who was being eaten wasn't resisting - he was actually joining, eating himself.

That - that right there - is the worst thing I've ever heard of.

I think this one will have to go to the jury. Here it is. Which is worse:

1) Being alive while being eaten and actually joining in of the eating of your own body.

or

2) Letting your child die of hunger or disease and burying them and then later exhuming their rotting corpses and eating them.

We await your verdict.

Number 2 is singular, and could just be a Jeffrey Dahmer type thing. Maybe not, but it's still possible.

Number 1 means that things have gone so far beyond bad that you are so hungry that you would eat yourself. That's not the potential cherry-picking of 'ick' stories to show the worst (which may be due to mental illness), it's showing that it is the situation which is causing EVERYONE to engage.

...would have approved.

tonguedepressor: If I had millions of dollars at my disposal I would seriously consider finding a way to kill this person by any means possible including doing it myself, if for no other reason than saving the 100's of thousands that await a slow death by hunger. ergghhh.

Taking off my Kim Jong-Un hat for a moment...

Consider the difficulty in reuniting East and West Germany. In that case there was only 40 years of separation, and the Soviet Union wasn't as explicitly tyrannical as North Korean's ruling party, there were actually people there who did care for the people. It was much more political and fiefdom (like China) than North Korea's total 1984 implementation.

The East Germans still had some people there who remembered what it was like before. They had educated people (if not many), and they had the potential for economic growth. North Korean's have been left to stagnate for 60+ years with intentional destruction of education and the concept of entrepreneurship. Even in the best case scenario where the oligarchs of NK walked away to go live a life of luxury in Fiji, the entire country of the North would have to be (pardon the term) re-educated, supported, and financed for decades if not an entire century. There really isn't much there that lets them get out of this without massive welfare.

A good example of the problem is a country like Haiti. After the slaves rebelled and threw off the French, the French came back and demanded extreme reparations (yes, the slave owners demanded reparations from the slaves), Haitians were on the hook to France well into the 1960s, paying almost all of their net GDP to France rather than improving their country. The result is that Haiti has nothing much left, and is almost wholly depended on foreign support to avoid horrific famine and warfare. North Korea would be this x1000 as any easily extracted natural resources have already been exploited and sold to enrich the elite. I'm not sure what if anything can be done short of just 'adopting' the entire population.

And that doesn't even begin to scratch the logistics side of ensuring that the people actually get fed even if the world decides to foot the bill.

Eating your own children and digging up corpses for food is the most horrible thing that could ever happen. I don't care if a meteor came down and wiped out Australia its still not as bad as that act.

This is it. The pinnacle of grotesque human behavior, nothing can top this. Go ahead, try, it'll still fall short of eating your own children or eating brought up from their grave corpses.

DamnYankees: This is sadly common in human history. The Chinese, Russians and Ukranian, at the least, have both engaged in cannibalism in the last century due to starvation.

You also forgot about Uruguayan rugby teams.

When even fermented cabbage is impossible to come by, that's a desperate state of affairs.

NobleHam: So tell me again why the risk to Seoul is too great to justify invading this country and eliminating its leadership?

Well, it depends on if you are comfortable with 500,000-a million casualties in the first hour of conflict or not. Seoul (population 10 million) is well within artillery range of the North's guns that have had 50 years to be built deep into mountains.

Though U.S. and other allies can/would control the skies, the North does have dense (though aging) air defence. Even target strikes would have trouble eliminating the built up and well protected artillery.

Don't get me wrong--- in the end I am certain that a South Korea/U.S./Others force would win over the North (Depending on how China involves themselves or not) but the cost in civilian deaths in the South would be extreme. Even before we consider the horrors of nuclear conflict.

Onkel Buck: Im convinced we should try this communism thing, seems like it works everywhere else it has been tried

It's not communism.
...and I say this as a raging right wing lunatic.

True communism has rarely happened on a scale larger than a few thousand people. More often its the name used to cover up for a single party or autocratic government.
People use alot of pretty words to define these tyrannical monstrosities as if there was some difference. Its always the same nonsense in the end.
A Monarchy without the legitimacy of a bloodline.

/in the norks case where you're following the grandson of the founder, maybe it really is a monarchy.

"Meat's meat, and a man's got to eat."

log_jammin: Resident Muslim: I really can't see why you can't 'live off the land' especially if you were a farmer and know your plants.

I mean this in the nicest way. That comment reeks of ignorance.

There is a reason that hunter gather societies don't expand into populations in the tens of millions.

Hmm.

Resident Muslim: Power crazed rulers are no surprise.
Cannibalism...not sure if serious.


Especially with family. You'd think people would eat tree bark, rodents anything.
Forgive me if I think this sounds too made up.

Look up the famines in Egypt, China, and Ethiopia. Wince at how things got so bad that parents sold their children into slavery to ensure they wouldn't be eaten, roaming gangs of starving people would kill and eat anyone they ran across, and family members ate whoever died first to try to survive.

Power crazed rulers are no surprise.
Cannibalism...not sure if serious.


Especially with family. You'd think people would eat tree bark, rodents anything.
Forgive me if I think this sounds too made up.

"North Korean woman and children are dying!! Give us food!!!"

Everybody gotta die sometime.

Why all the butthurt in this thread? Famine and cannibalism is how nature deals with parasitical tumors like humans.

/every sperm is sacred
//oh noes, some people are eating their offspring! how will we ever reach ten billion at this rate!

FTA: Fat Boy built a dolphinarium?

Really?

NobleHam: The only things stopping us are concerns about Seoul's safety and reluctance on the part of the South to take on the task of modernizing the North, but I think the former is overblown and the latter isn't a very popular excuse among the people in the South, many of whom still have family in the North.

From what I understand, the South is perfectly content to starve the North out. It gets the same job done that a war would do without risking any of their soldiers or risking getting the crap bombed out of Seoul.

I can believe it. The great famine in ancient Egypt, the terrible famine in China, and the Ethiopian famine all had accounts of cannibalism. Desperate people do desperate things to survive when there's nothing else available. North Korea routinely throws people, including children, into gulags for whatever reason that can be dreamed up and leave them to starve, if they aren't beaten or tortured to death first for trying to eat dirt or rats.

Should we consider those who cannibalize because of imminent starvation criminals and devils?

Shadowknight: NobleHam: Shadowknight: sminkypinky: The US should invade and impose democracy - you know, like they did in afghanistan, iraq... They were so successful, I'm sure that it would be fine.
Hang on - no oil there - so fukem.

Not that you're not right, but don't forget that while China treats them like an unruly stepchild from a forgotten marriage most of the time, they do OFFICIALLY support them. Going in to NK would start WWIII.

China doesn't care anymore. They pay lip service to supporting North Korea but if push came to shove, they'd step out of the way. They're not going to fight a war for this giant pain in their ass.

I don't know, man. I can see it being one of those pride and honor situations. I can insult my fat, stupid kid, but that's because he's MY fat stupid kid. Don't YOU dare say he's fat and stupid, though, because thems fightin' words, son.

A lot has changed since 1950, though. The Cold War is over and there's no Soviet Union left for China to side with, they rely on us economically and would really much rather have North Korea open for them to exploit its resources and use its cheap labor. China has been tacitly allowing defections from North Korea for about a decade against the Kim family's will and now has a pretty sizable expat population pushing for liberation. China wouldn't help us out if we decided to do something about NK, and they'd probably send us a strongly worded letter with their disapproval, but we wouldn't have to worry about them actually fighting us. The only things stopping us are concerns about Seoul's safety and reluctance on the part of the South to take on the task of modernizing the North, but I think the former is overblown and the latter isn't a very popular excuse among the people in the South, many of whom still have family in the North.

C18H27NO3: OgreMagi: If the UN had any balls, they'd state flat out that the government is offensive to the entire world and anyone who protects the status quo is equally guilty of the horrors being inflicted on the people.

I'm more of the 'Let's fix our own problems first and to hell with the rest of the world in the meantime'-type but NK perpetuates crimes against humanity every minute of the day and it boggles my mind how we as a people allow it.
And by 'we' I mean the world.

I don't pretend to have any answers but something has to be done over there, by someone, sooner rather than later.
These are real people no different in essence than you or I.

I also tend towards the "fix our own problems first" thinking, but agree with you. What is happening in NK is too horrific to ignore. However, the only way anything is going to get fixed is if China stepped in. I don't see that happening unless something forces their hand.

Hai Guyz, what's going on in this thread?! Oh, I see. Does anyone know Korean?
Please help me write this in Korean, please:

Hello! I am a Teacher of English. I am very experienced, and specialise in teaching children.
They make the best pupils. They also have the most intriguing brains and carefully prepared it can last a life-time.
The mindful child is a healthy child. Let me help nurture their bodies and brains.

Yours, Albert Fish.

I kinda see a "Reagan Doctrine" in the works here.

Make Best Korea spend a buttload of money on rocket launches until they eventually run out of money after China finally cuts them off. Fatt Dingdongs ends up being deposed (and eaten), and all those refugees start spilling across the borders into China (which serves Bejing right after all these decades).

Shadowknight: sminkypinky: The US should invade and impose democracy - you know, like they did in afghanistan, iraq... They were so successful, I'm sure that it would be fine.
Hang on - no oil there - so fukem.

Not that you're not right, but don't forget that while China treats them like an unruly stepchild from a forgotten marriage most of the time, they do OFFICIALLY support them. Going in to NK would start WWIII.

China doesn't care anymore. They pay lip service to supporting North Korea but if push came to shove, they'd step out of the way. They're not going to fight a war for this giant pain in their ass.

GUTSU: sminkypinky: The US should invade and impose democracy - you know, like they did in afghanistan, iraq... They were so successful, I'm sure that it would be fine.
Hang on - no oil there - so fukem.

So you are for a war that would cost several times what the iraq and afganistan wars have put together?

We probably have more troops concentrated in SK than most countries have for an army. I imagine the defense forces the SK has mustered by the border isn't cheap either. If a war were to start (rather than the phony/limited war now), it would be quick and SK would probably just absorb NK like West Germany did with East Germany. I think the populations of both sides and the SK government just want the ongoing war to be over. NK will not go down without destruction or mass genocide so we can leave the whole "make peace not war" crap in the hippy section of history.

So tell me again why the risk to Seoul is too great to justify invading this country and eliminating its leadership?

Oznog: [guides.gamepressure.com image 280x220]

Never should have taken that perk...

It may not have been the best perk. but it was sure the lulziest. Killing people in their sleep (Sandman), eating them, and selling all their stuff to the vendor in the next room at the Mojave Outpost, that is funny. Doing it again 8 hours later with the next shift, who are sleeping in the same beds with the old naked corpses, that is hilarious.

Never should have taken that perk...

I submitted this with the "scary" tag. Anyway, I'm glad the admins finally greenlighted the story.

The cannabilism can only be worse in the concentration camp-like prison camps. The ones where they arrest all three generations of family of anyone who criticizes the government.

If you could manage to kill a person that ate a person that managed to eat another person who also ate someone you'd end up with some kind of North Korean turducken.

/Sort of

Well, at least one of the North Koreans have enough food.

Shadowknight: Does China get frogy and march in troops? Do his own generals take him our for being weak, possibly before the move?

It's more likely that China nudges them in the direction of gradual capitalist reform. The same reforms that saved the people's republic from from mass starvation. It is a common problem in communist states. Lax enforcement of communist laws against private sales of produce is the only thing keeping Cuba from being NK.

They could feed them with all the nuclear bombs they are trying to build.

"Undercover reporters said food was confiscated from the two provinces and given to the residents of the capital Pyongyang.

Let the Hunger Games begin!

violentsalvation: GAT_00: So, unconfirmed stories, but from a source considered to be credible.

Dammit that sucks. I was hoping it was BS. But thanks for the links and the text.

It may very well be BS. It's North Korea. How the fark are we supposed to prove anything from there?

But this seems difficult to dream up.