Thread: North Korea's tough blokes

^ Oh course, if you have to produce a video like that ... just proves that the mass populace must be in poor physical health.

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North Koreans Resentful of Missile Launches Amid Hunger and Poverty


Citizens in North Korea are becoming increasingly angry that state media is touting this week’s cruise missile tests as a major national defense achievement when many are struggling to find their next meal, sources in the country told RFA.

Pyongyang over the weekend tested a new long-range cruise missile with a range of 1,500 kilometers (930 miles), which puts targets in Japan within reach. Cruise missiles are low-flying and harder to defend against than ballistic missiles.

North Korea also conducted ballistic missile tests on Wednesday, launches which coincided with a South Korean submarine-launched missile test, a visit to Seoul by China’s foreign minister, and a three-way meeting between Seoul, Tokyo and Washington to discuss North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs.

Chronically short of food, North Korea has seen starvation deaths this year in the wake of the closure of the Sino-Korean border and suspension of trade with China in Jan. 2020 to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Against that backdrop, citizens are grumbling that their government does not care about their plight.
“The people are so antipathetic, asking how the authorities can do such things as if they don’t know that many of us here are starving because of this economic crisis,” said a resident of the northeastern coastal city of Hamhung, in South Hamgyong province.


“The people say that Kim Jong Un doesn’t even know that the people are starving and he’s doing things like that,” the source, who requested anonymity for security reasons, told RFA’s Korean Service.
Missile tests, many people say, are meaningless when the army cannot even feed its soldiers, according to the source.

“They are saying that the People’s Army can’t fight a war because the soldiers are subsisting on corn and rice, and they can’t survive in the military unless their family sends money to support their military life,” said the source.

North Koreans Resentful of Missile Launches Amid Hunger and Poverty — Radio Free Asia