More and more N. Pyongan Province families pass out due to hunger

A growing number of families in North Pyongan Province are growing so hungry that they are passing out, Daily NK has learned.

A source in North Pyongan Province told Daily NK on Tuesday that more and more families in several regions of the province, including Sinuiju, can no longer stand up due to hunger. 

“One out of three families in each neighborhood watch unitNeighborhood watch units (inminban, people's units) are Nort... More are having a tough time putting meals together,” he said.

According to the source, with North Korea’s border closure extending for three straight years, many North Koreans face difficulty putting even a single meal on the table per day.

Even in North Pyongan Province, both adults and children are collapsing due to hunger, and even previously well-off residents who wanted for nothing in the past are mired in poverty, the source said. 

SEVERAL SINUIJU FAMILIES FOUND UNCONSCIOUS

In early February, five families in a neighborhood watch unitNeighborhood watch units (inminban, people's units) are Nort... More in Sinuiju’s Sokhwa-dong district were found unconscious.

The source said that women who have long struggled to feed their families are now worn out and becoming bedridden from disease.

“In regards to these five families, everyone in the households collapsed due to hunger when the women who were responsible for providing for them could no longer get up,” he said.

Women have already been having a tough time providing for their families, and the recent spate of collection campaigns they have been forced to participate in has led many of them to collapse from hunger and overwork, the source explained. 

“With the already terrible economic situation growing even worse, hunger is causing more and more families to have difficulties even rising up off the floor,” he said.

The source said the fact that more and more families immobilized from hunger are appearing even in Sinuiju – a hub of trade with China that was so well off that North Koreans once said it rivaled Pyongyang in terms of standards of living – demonstrates just how bad food shortages have become.

EVEN KUSONG RESIDENTS EXPERIENCE STARVATION

North Pyongan Province’s city of Kusong has also seen people collapsing from hunger, and in some cases, even dying.

In early February, a family of three was found passed out on the floor, unable to stand due to hunger. One of them, a seven-year-old child, was found no longer breathing and the source said that he heard the child had starved to death. 

“The parents regained consciousness, but they are unable to overcome their grief from losing a child to hunger,” he said, adding that, “fear of food shortages is growing among people who are witnessing death in front of their own eyes.”