Could food shortages in North Korea Signal a Repeat of the 1990's Famine?

After a springtime of increasingly dire warnings of food shortages from UN officials and even leader Kim Jong Un himself, this month North Korea told work units and organizations at all levels in the country of 25 million to fend for themselves when it comes to food.

Further reports have emerged of rising hunger in the North Korean countryside -- at least partly the result of the closure of North Korea’s border with China in January 2020 to combat the spread of coronavirus. Paul Eckert and Eugene Whong will discuss the evolving crisis in a country that lost several million people to famine a quarter century ago.

And we look at the little-reported impact of the use of Agent Orange over Laos during the Vietnam War. RFA's Mat Pennington speaks with Susan Hammond of the War Legacies Project which has conducted pathfinding research that points to a high incidence of birth defects in villages that were sprayed with the toxic herbicide five decades ago.