[Yonhap Photo]
Due to strengthened international sanctions, North Korea may see an economic crisis which is more serious than the period of a great famine following the death of its founding father, Kim Il-sung, the South's point man on Pyongyang said.
Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon told a forum that sanctions are expected to affect some 90 percent of North Korea's annual exports worth about three billion US dollars.
North Korea's missile and nuclear threats prompted the U.N. Security Council and Washington to impose tough sanctions. Analysts said Pyongyang was nervous about Beijing's toughened stance as 90 percent of its external trade comes through China.
"In the 1990s, North Korea was in great difficulty, coupled with a food shortage, after the death of Kim Il-sung. In some cases, there are some prospects that North Korea's economic situation may get worse than that time," Cho said, adding South Korea should closely watch how North Korean people will react to such a situation.
After Kim's death on July 8, 1994, North Korea was battered by an economic crisis together with a series of natural disasters and the famine from 1994 to 1998 that killed up to three million people by some estimates. The crisis was commonly known as the Arduous March or the March of Suffering in North Korea. At that time, starvation and hunger-related illnesses were rampant.
reporter
Lim Chang-won
cwlim34@ajunews.com
