Food shortages dampen NK leader`s 69th birthday

North Korea was in a less-than-celebratory mood due to severe food shortages Tuesday, a day ahead of the 69th birthday of leader Kim Jong Il.

Many expected that the Stalinist country would hold massive events to mark the country’s biggest holiday to prevent a weakening of Kim’s authority and show off his health. This year marks his first birthday since the official designation of his successor Kim Jong Un.

Strong international sanctions and severe food shortages, however, have prevented the communist country from doing so.

○ Stark contrast to four years ago

In early 2007, when the North marked its leader’s 65th birthday, trains loaded with gifts and food for leaders of the North Korean ruling Workers’ Party and military lined up in the Chinese border town of Dandong.

Given that the North holds big birthday events every five years, the atmosphere this year is a far cry from that of 2007. As many as 52 celebratory events were held four years ago, including a choral competition joined by high-ranking officials and an event for making a mosaic mural in downtown Pyongyang.

Few signs indicating Kim’s birthday have been spotted in Dandong this year, however, and few North Korean missions abroad have bought birthday gifts, according to the South Korean Unification Ministry.

Though the North is trying to create a festive mood by carrying articles praising Kim Jong Il in newspapers, the atmosphere inside the North is different from that of the past, experts said. This is due to internal and external conditions that are significantly different from those of four years ago.

Though U.N. Security Council Resolution 1718 was issued four years ago to impose sanctions on the North over its first nuclear test in October 2006, no sanctions were implemented since Pyongyang immediately resumed the six-party nuclear talks.

This time is different, however. U.N. Resolution 1874 imposed after the North’s second nuclear test halted North Korean trading of both ordinary and luxury goods. North Korean companies that used to buy birthday gifts for Kim are subject to sanctions as well.

South Korea’s sanctions imposed on the North on May 24 last year in the wake of the sinking of the South Korean naval vessel Cheonan restricted inter-Korean trade and cut Seoul’s assistance to Pyongyang. This has prevented the North from earning dollars.

Furthermore, the collapse of the Egyptian government has given the North a psychological burden. Kim’s frail health has not helped the mood, either.

○ Even soldiers poorly fed

The decisive factor that makes Kim’s birthday gloomy this year is food shortages, however.

A Unification Ministry official in Seoul said, “Some say the North`s food crisis is not as severe as the crisis stemming from floods in the 1990s, but due to the suspension of international aid to the North, the North Korean government has had difficulty holding birthday events.”

Media outlets covering North Korea say 70 percent of the North’s soldiers are poorly fed.

The South Korea-based human rights group Good Friends quoted a North Korean Workers’ Party official as saying, “In the run-up to Kim’s birthday, all party organizations and trading companies are making all-out efforts to secure food for special rations to mark the occasion.”

The North is expected to give special rations to Pyongyang residents, who are key supporters of the communist regime, but the rest of the North Korean people will probably endure a not-so-generous situation in what is supposed to be the country’s most festive holiday.