In Pyongyang, the capital, residence in which is reserved for the most politically loyal North Koreans, plenty of food is available on sale. A grocery inside the Rakwon Department Store carries Froot Loops and frozen beef. At open-air markets, you can find mangoes, kiwis and pineapples
But the products are far too expensive for most North Koreans, whose official salaries are less than $1 a month -- 60 to 75 cents monthly for the workers surveyed by the World Food Program. And the farther you get from Pyongyang, the poorer are the people.
Nampo is 25 miles southwest of the capital, on the Yellow Sea. It used to be a thriving port city, but nowadays its harbor is used mostly for shipments of humanitarian aid. On a weekday morning, many people sit along the sidewalk watching the few cars pass by. They appear to be unemployed or homeless.
The shoeless child walked through the center of town across the street from the flashiest building in the city, a pink structure with a triangular roof that houses an exhibit of Kimjongilia, a hybrid breed of begonia named for North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. A parking lot next to the main department store is carpeted a golden yellow from corn that has been laid out to dry.
Every available patch of land appears dedicated to the production of food. Irregular shaped plots encircled by highway exits, even slivers sloping down between houses and the road at 45-degree angles, are planted with vegetables.
Much of the population has been enlisted in producing food. On a Friday morning at rush hour, the sides of the road out of Pyongyang were lined with office workers marching out to the countryside to help with the harvest. Many were middle-aged women with pocketbooks and clothing that made them look as though they were off to a business meeting, except for the fact that some carried shovels.
The food shortage is not from a lack of effort so much as from a dearth of proper equipment and fertilizer, combined with the naturally harsh climate and terrain of the countryside. Much of the rice crop is lost because the collective farms are using threshing machines dating to the 1960s and '70s.
In the fields, there were only a few skinny oxen and almost no motorized vehicles. Trucks in the countryside had been retrofitted to burn wood instead of gasoline. People carried large sacks on their backs, walking along a path of rusted railroad tracks where no train could now travel. Guard posts were erected in the cornfields, evidently to prevent theft.
