Ever since the the end of
World War II Korea has been split into two parts,
South Korea and
North Korea, South being a
democracy (in name anyways) (supported by the
USA) and the North running a
Stalinist regime (supported by the former
USSR).
Led by Kim Il Sung, as soon as the split occured and backed by the Soviet government, he started massive arms buildup and military mobilization, obviously to conquer South Korea. That finally happened in 1951, resulting in the Korean War (I have an extensive node there).
When that finally ended in 1954 with the armistice, the deluded and paranoid North Korean government and its possibly insane leader sank into isolation, politically and economically, dreaming of one day rising up against the "evil" South Korea again.
This stupid policy obviously meant that almost all the country's resources would be put into its armed forces. The ruling party stubbornly held to its policy of "juche", or self-reliance, no matter what the conditions were. But in reality, its equipment always came from the Soviets and its economy was really nonexistant. This crazy policy would have been an atrocity already, because millions of people certainly suffered from the brainlessness of the government goals.
North Korea is now the only Stalinist government left in the world. It cotinued with the crap it has been doing for the past 50 years. Until the famines hit. Millions died. The country has been in starvation and relying on foreign food aid since 1995.
And yet, it still continued its claim of self-reliance when their own food comes from its most hated enemy, South Korea. It continued to devote all its resources to the military, claming (and quote):
``We should always devote ourselves to making the People's Army into an invincible armed force."
While hungry soldiers rob and murder in the streets of North Korea searching for food that does not exist, and all the food coming in directed to the leaders and the military (and the soldiers are still hungry), the situation in North Korea can only get worse. They are rumored to be building nuclear missiles. I have one question to the idiot Kim Jong Il and his government:
What the hell good would nukes be when all your people are dead?