Radio Free Asia 9/8/2021
An unprecedented medicine burglary from wartime stocks has shocked officials.
With food shortages driving hungry North Koreans to steal crops from fields, authorities have deployed military units to guard farmland during harvest season with orders to shoot crop thieves on sight, sources in the country told RFA.
The campaign to stop crop theft has unfolded amid an extensive investigation into the unprecedented theft of emergency wartime supplies of anti-biotics from a government warehouse,
Chronically short of food, North Korea has seen starvation deaths this year in the wake of the closure of the Sino-Korean border and suspension of trade with China in Jan. 2020 to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
With thievery from farms on the rise nationwide, authorities in the northeastern province of North Hamgyong have ordered the military to patrol the farms there, a military source from the area told RFA’s Korean Service Monday.
“The 9th Corps have organized groups to patrol the farms day and night because thefts are happening frequently,” said the source, who requested anonymity for security reasons.
More:
https://www.rfa.org/english/news/korea/thieves-09082021164555.html