North Korea newspaper says outside aid 'poisoned candy'

North Korea’s newspaper referred to people relying on external aid to cope with the food shortages as equivalent to taking “poisoned candy.” The newspaper also went on to urge economic self-reliance as the isolated nation remains under sanctions and lockdowns due to COVID-19.

On Wednesday, the newspaper of North Korea’s ruling Worker’s Party published a commentary warning against getting help from “imperialists” who use aid as a means to “trap and plunder and subjugate” recipient countries and interfere with their internal politics. The commentary went on to refer to taking such aid as “eating this poisoned candy.”

The commentary comes amidst reports by South Korea’s Yonhap news outlet on the same day that around 700 inmates at three North Korean prisons, including Kaechon, died from famine and diseases in the past two years, according to sources. While Seoul’s Unification ministry did not comment on the report, the ministry said on Tuesday that there had been an increase in deaths from starvation in some provinces in North Korea.

“Food production dropped from last year, and there is a possibility of distribution issues due to a change in their food supply and distribution policy,” a unification ministry official told reporters.

Unification minister Kwon Young-se previously said Pyongyang has sought help from the United Nations World Food Program to provide support but no progress was made due to differences in monitoring.

In December, South Korea’s rural development agency estimated North Korea’s crop production at around 4.5 million tons last year, 3.8 percent down from 2021 due to heavy rains among other issues.

South Korean lawmakers also said on Wednesday that Pyongyang may try and pressure the United States by undertaking an intercontinental ballistic missile test on the normal trajectory as Washington and its allies in the region plan to hold large-scale exercises, which have drawn the ire of North Korea. The briefing by the South Korean intelligence service to its lawmakers came amidst the joint tactical drills that were staged by the US, South Korea, and Japan.

North Korea fired an ICBM on Saturday, followed by two short-range ballistic missiles on Monday, with Kim Jong-un’s sister Kim Yo-jong threatening to use the Pacific as North Korea’s “firing range” depending on US actions.