famine in North Korea 1997 report

1997 Mark Davis reports on the devastating famine in North Korea of 1997, confirming the extent of the food crisis, and that international aid did not get through to the people who need it most.
He captures a rare insight into the negotiations between CARE and the government Relief Committee, who complain CARE is not helping enough. The obsessively secretive government wants to direct all aid to the fertile rice bowl areas around the capital, because productivity here is highest. Then they will then be able to feed the starving in the country's north. Williamson disagrees and is granted a rare permit to travel north to judge for himself. The team break the schedule and visit a nursery of their choosing. Here the hungry children are lacklustre and silent. Officially banned from filming in hospitals, desperate doctors allow the camera in. Hungry mothers are supposed to supply food for their children. A family with no men starve more than their more productive neighbours. If you don't work, it seems, you don't eat. This is no socialist famine. The government says the north is not a farming area and shouldn't get aid first. CARE says aid should go to the starving.