North Koreans reveal entire families are starving to death under Kim Jong Un’s rule

North Koreans have revealed that entire families are dying of starvation under Kim Jong-un’s rule as the dictator focuses on nuclear weapons rather than feeding his nation.

Citizens trapped in North Korea say they have seen mothers, unable to work due to illness, starve to death before their children succumbed to the same fate.

They say Kim has used the Covid-19 pandemic as a way to once again exert more control over his citizens – cracking down on those caught smuggling food into North Korea and selling it in markets or against anyone who comes close to the border.

For those caught even approaching the border, they are shot as part of state executions. Witnesses say they saw four people lined up at once before being shelled.

North Koreans say they have become so desperate – many look to their neighbors and their children starve to death – that only an invasion of their country can end their agony.

Farmers plant rice seedlings at Kumsong Farm in Onchon County, Nampho City, North Korea on May 23

“Only with a war, and by losing the entire leadership, can we survive,” Chan Ho, not his real name, tells the BBC. “Let’s end this somehow.”

Chan Ho, a construction worker who lives in a border village in North Korea, says he has seen people starving around him, including a mother and her two young children.

He says another mother in his village became so ill that she could no longer work and her children tried in vain to earn enough money to buy food by begging on the street. But all three family members died of starvation within weeks.

Chan Ho says a soldier he knows was discharged from the army because he was malnourished. He died of starvation within a week of leaving the army.

Ji Yeon, a mother living in the capital Pyongyang, says she and her family are constantly battling the famine that is sweeping through the city.

She says that she and her husband secretly took fruit and vegetables from the grocery store where she worked to the market. But since the pandemic, the government is now searching their bags for food, meaning an important source of income has disappeared.

This, coupled with the fact that the government has closed the border to food imports since the start of the pandemic, has resulted in thousands of people starving to death.

“I thought I would die in my sleep and not wake up in the morning,” says Ji Yeon. ‘It’s a disaster. Without supplies from the border, people don’t know how to make a living.’

North Koreans say Kim Jong-un (pictured) has used the Covid-19 pandemic as a way to reassert greater control over his citizens by cracking down on those smuggling food into North Korea and selling it in markets and against anyone who comes near. the border.

When Ji Yeon walks the streets of the capital, she says she often checks the beggars lying on the ground – only to find out that they have died of starvation.

She also says that after three days of silence, authorities arrived at her neighbour’s house and found that the entire family had died of starvation.

Ji Yeon says the situation has become so desperate that some people commit suicide to avoid slow death from starvation.

Myong Suk, who smuggled drugs into North Korea before being caught, and Chan Ho say the pandemic will allow the government to crack down on smuggling and deter people from fleeing the country.

Chan Ho says the current situation is more difficult than the famine of the 1990s, which is believed to have killed millions. He explains that the difference now is that the government forces execute anyone who takes even one ‘wrong step’.

He says an acquaintance had witnessed several state executions of people who had tried to escape.

“If I play by the rules I will probably starve to death, but just by trying to survive I fear I could be arrested, branded a traitor and killed,” says Chan Ho. “We’re stuck here, waiting to die.”

For those trapped in the famine-ravaged country, they are angry that instead of supplying food markets and reducing inflation, Kim Jong Un is spending state money on his arsenal of nuclear weapons

The three North Koreans interviewed by the BBC revealed that citizens in towns and cities were not allowed to set foot outside their homes for weeks during the height of the pandemic. Many only survived because they could sneak out at night to get food.

Experts believe the death toll from Covid could reach 45,000 – far higher than the official toll of 74.

For those trapped in the famine-ravaged country, they are angry that instead of supplying food markets and reducing inflation, Kim Jong Un is spending state money on his arsenal of nuclear weapons.

They feel ‘tricked’ by the government. “This border closure has taken our lives back 20 years. We feel very betrayed,” says Ji Yeon. “The people have never wanted this endless development of weapons, which brings trouble to generation after generation.”

The North Koreans believe the only way to end their misery is for the US to invade their country. They say a war would mean people would turn their backs on Kim and his cronies.

Experts believe that the situation in North Korea is becoming “very serious” and worse than since the famine in the late 1990s.

And there’s no sign of the horrors abating as markets – where most North Koreans buy food – remain nearly empty while the price of rice and corn remains high.

The country’s borders – which are critical given North Korea’s reliance on imports – remain closed, meaning the government continues to cut off vital supplies to its starving citizens.