The use of starvation to cripple nations and their populations to the will of the global powers

Unnamed Israeli officials upon hearing the recent agreement between the U.S. and North Korea to freeze uranium enrichment for food aid, said this should be done with Iran as well. Well, what the Israelis may or may not know is, the North Koreans (DPRK) already received a 500,000 ton food-aid shipment from China along with a 250,000 tons of crude oil. 

This recent agreement with the U.S. really isn`t that significant but is curious on the part of DPRK, who may be cautiously gauging U.S. sentiment. Off course if the agreement will be implemented fully by both sides is yet to be seen as both failed to keep their ends of the bargain back in 1994 and 1997 - of The Agreed Framework, where both sides essentially blamed each other for ending the Agreed Framework. The accord was successful in the terms that it kept the DPRK to freeze plutonium production at their Yongbyon plutonium plant for 8 years in return for partial fulfillment of U.S. promises to provide two light water reactors (LWR) and heavy-oil shipments.  

Is this a surprise the U.S. wouldn`t fully keep their ends of the bargain?, which would explain why the DPRK mounted to a uranium enrichment program to achieve nuclear weapons as a deterrent to possible agression from South Korea and the U.S. 

Now back to Iran, the Israeli officials say the stifling sanctions "could lead to a grave economic situation in Iran and to a shortage of food," essentially starving the Iranian population. Oh wait, I thought starving a civilian population is illegal under the Geneva Convention and it sure it under Article 54 is but nowadays who follows it right? - it only applies to U.S. and NATO troops in 'foreign intervention missions."

The Israelis sure know about this brutal practice of starving people, which they have subjected to the population of Gaza and there are now damning documents that gives evidence to this as previously denied by Israel off course, uncovered by the International Middle East Media Center and reported in November 2010. 

And oh lets not forget that starvation was and is a tool used by the global powers to enslave nations. The perfect but unfortunate example is in Iraq, which resulted in over 500,00 children dead due to barbaric embargos imposed on Saddam Hussein and Iraq. 

What a world we live in huh?

Read Article:

No strangers to brutality: the U.S., Europe and the UN imposed sanctions
on Iraq that resulted in the death of over 500,000 children. Credit: Infowars

Israeli Officials Call for Starving Millions of Iranians
Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
March 1, 2012

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s best and brightest have an idea on how to deal with Iran’s imaginary nukes – starve the Iranian people to death.

“North Korea is halting its nuclear program in order to receive aid in food, and this is what should be done with Iran as well,” an unnamed official told Ynetnews.

“Suffocating sanctions could lead to a grave economic situation in Iran and to a shortage of food,” the source explained. “This would force the regime to consider whether the nuclear adventure is worthwhile, while the Persian people have nothing to eat and may rise up as was the case in Syria, Tunisia and other Arab states.”

“The Western world led by the United States must implement stifling sanctions at this time already, rather than wait or hesitate,” the official continued. “In order to suffocate Iran economically and diplomatically and lead the regime there to a hopeless situation, this must be done now, without delay.”

Starving a civilian population is prohibited under Article 54 of the Geneva Convention.

The Israeli government honed this brutal practice in the Gaza Strip. “Documents, whose existence were denied by the Israeli government for over a year, have been released after a legal battle led by Israeli human rights group, Gisha,” the International Middle East Media Center reported in November of 2010.

   The documents reveal a deliberate policy by the Israeli government in which the dietary    
   needs for the population of Gaza are chillingly calculated, and the amounts of food let in by 
   the Israeli government measured to remain just enough to keep the population alive at a 
   near-starvation level. This documents the statement made by a number of Israeli officials 
   that they are “putting the people of Gaza on a diet”….

   The documents are even more disturbing, say human rights activists, when one considers 
   the fact that close to half of the people of Gaza are children under the age of eighteen. This 
   means that Israel has deliberately forced the undernourishment of hundreds of thousands 
   of children in direct violation of international law and the Fourth Geneva Convention.

Jason Ditz notes that blockading Iran will not produce starvation. “Iran is actually a net food exporter, and while more sanctions could make the industry less efficient and perhaps curb exports, it would not make the food Iran does grow disappear into thin air.”

“The idea that a suddenly starving populace is going to up and overthrow its government on behalf of those that are starving them, however, seems to fly in the face of the history of sanctions,” Ditz writes.

The Israelis, of course, are not alone – the United States, Europe and the United Nations used starvation in Iraq. They imposed a medieval embargo over the period of a decade and tried to starve the nation into submission. The result was over 500,000 dead children, which Clinton’s Secretary of State, Madeline Albright said was a price worth paying. Over the span of ten years, child mortality in Iraq went from one of the lowest in the world, to the highest.

Additional Readings/Sources:
Israeli Officials Call for Starving Millions of Iranians -Infowars (March 1, 2012)
Israeli Officials: Let’s Starve Iranian Civilians - Antiwar (Feb 29, 2012)
Israeli officials: Starve Iranians to stop nukes - YNet News (Feb 29, 2012)
Israeli Government Documents Show Deliberate Policy To Keep Gazans At Near-starvation Levels - IMEMC (Nov 2, 2010)
Effects of Iraq Sanctions - Global Issues (Oct 2, 2005)
Geneva Convention, Section IV (Civilian Population) 

Is there more than meets the eye with North Korea`s sudden and recent agreement to freeze uranium enrichment for food aid?

* FILE ** North Korea’s spent nuclear fuel rods, kept 

in a cooling pond, are seen at the nuclear facilities in 

Yongbyon, North Korea, about 60 miles north of the 

capital, in this 1996 photo released by South Korea’s 

Yonhap News Agency in 2003. (AP Photo/Yonhap 

News Agency, File)

N. Korea agrees to freeze nuclear programs for U.S. food aid
Washington Times
Wednesday, February 29, 2012

North Korea will put a moratorium on nuclear tests, long-range missile launches and uranium enrichment activities at its major Yongbyon nuclear facility, the State Department announced Wednesday.
Pyongyang will also allow inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency to return to North Korea to “verify and monitor the moratorium on uranium enrichment activities at Yongbyon and confirm the disablement of the 5-MW reactor and associated facilities,” said State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland.

In exchange, the United States has agreed to deliver a significant food-aid package to North Korea.

The announcement marks a new step in the tense relations between the West and North Korea following the death late last year of longtime North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il.

His passing set in motion an uncertain transfer of power to his son, 27-year-old Kim Jong-un, who is slated to become the youngest person to head a nation with nuclear weapons.

While the State Department took care not to characterize the agreement as a quid pro quo, Ms. Nuland said U.S. officials have agreed to meet with representatives from Pyongyang.

They will “finalize administrative details necessary to move forward with our proposed package of 240,000 metric tons of nutritional assistance along with the intensive monitoring required for the delivery of such assistance,” she said.

The sudden concessions by Pyongyang, and agreement by the United States arrives on the heals of a meeting last week in Beijing between Glyn Davies, the U.S. special representative for North Korea policy, and Kim Kye-gwan, North Korea’s first vice foreign minister.

U.S. officials also reaffirmed that Washington has no “hostile intent toward” North Korea and “is prepared to take steps to improve our bilateral relationship in the spirit of mutual respect for sovereignty and equality,” Ms. Nuland said.

“The United States still has profound concerns regarding North Korean behavior across a wide range of areas, but today´s announcement reflects important, if limited, progress in addressing some of these,” she said.

The Feb. 23 meeting in Beijing also signaled the first thaw in relations toward Pyongyang since six-nation talks with North Korea broke down after the communist government violated a 2005 agreement to abandon its pursuit of nuclear weapons in exchange for aid and security guarantees.

The six-nation talks — involving the United States, Russia, China, Japan and North and South Korea — were declared effectively dead in 2009 when North Korea claimed to have successfully created an underground nuclear explosion.


RT News (02/29/12) on N. Korea`s recent statement to freeze enrichment for food aid:

This TV footage from the National Chinese Television channel shows North Korea's cooling tower seconds before its public demolition at Yongbyon nuclear complex. (AFP Photo / CCTV) (RT News Feb 29, 2012)

Read/Additional Info:
N. Korea to halt nuke enrichment, missile tests - US (RT News, Feb 29, 2012)