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WASHINGTON - The U.S. defense secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, said this week that North Korea's famine and suffering were due to its "evil dictatorship." ¡°The solution is for North Korea to acknowledge that a market economy, not totalitarianism or despotism, is the system that creates the most for the people,¡± he said.
Rumsfeld was at the Hudson Research Institute in Washington, receiving the James Doolittle prize for exhibiting courage in the defense of the nation's freedoms. The German doctor and activist for North Korean rights and refugees Norbert Vollertsen was in attendance, and asked Rumsfeld, ¡°North Korean civilians are suffering under a dictatorship worse than Iraq. Are there any possibilities that the U.S. will support them?¡±
The defense secretary pointed out that the United States provides North Korea with more food support than any other country does, and that many countries are subsidizing North Korea, including China, which sends $500 million a year, and Japan. ¡°The problem is not because North Korea is not getting enough money from the outside world," he said.
¡°The North Korean military recently lowered its minimum height restrictions because the younger generation's growth is stunted due to the lack of food," Rumsfeld said. "The situation for North Korean people is truly tragic.¡±
Washington= Joo Yong-jung, midway@chosun.com
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