How do North Koreans make a living?
North Koreas food self-sufficiency rate is low, which normally would mean that it would be necessary to import the shortfall in foodstuffs. However, in North Koreas military-first political system, almost nothing is budgeted for the import of such foodstuffs, including staples like cereals. Instead, North Korea has come to rely on international humanitarian aid to provide this shortfall. Even so, the discrepancy between the amount of food needed by North Koreas people and the amount that actually reaches them is something the international community is well aware of. Strangely enough, there has been almost no fluctuation in market prices of foodstuffs as of March 2007. From this we can infer that for those who can afford to buy, there is no shortage in foodstuffs whatsoever. The problem is the effect this has on people who do not have the financial resources to buy food. For them, it matters very little whether food is available in the market since they cannot buy it in any case. Since
