JÜRGEN ESCHER, GERMANY
NORTH KOREA: THE DICTATORSHIP OF SCARCITY
We see orphans huddled together to keep themselves warm in a cold room. We see Ri, a feeble old grandmother who refrains from eating so that her grandchildren can. We see feverish, malnourished Kim who might find solace in the hand laid on her, but who still lacks medicine to get healthy again. At the inpatient ward of the People’s Hospital in South Pyongan Province, mothers fear for the lives of their children since there’s no medicine whatsoever. Farmers laboriously plant corn by hand in barely fertile ground.
© Jürgen Escher/Laif
In the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, old people desperately search fallow grounds for edible herbs. Emaciated people, empty warehouses, no energy supply: North Korea’s communist elite has mercilessly watched for decades as the people are stripped of their rights and their food.The regime allows food aid only in the case of the most dramatic of emergencies, such as in May and August 2011, when the aid organization Cap Anamur was allowed to bring rice and beans into the country. Cap Anamur provided the food supplies under the following condition: to be able to determine the recipients themselves and to allow the German photographer Jürgen Escher to document his impressions. He was particularly shocked when he saw the stunted growth of children due to chronic malnutrition.
Food aid alone cannot solve the problem of malnutrition since the entire health system is incapable of providing help to the people. For many years now, UNICEF has been one of the few international organizations present in North Korea and is supporting rehabilitation centers for undernourished children as well as approx. 2,800 health stations. UNICEF also carries out information campaigns aimed at parents since they often don’t know how critical their children’s state of health really is. Which is not surprising – as the typical symptoms of malnutrition, such as stunted growth and underweight, are commonplace.
Curriculum Vitae: Jürgen Escher
© Sven Nieder