Oddly, the evil effect of all these typhoons, droughts and floods seem to magically stop at the 38th parallel, since South Korea doesn't seem to be having any of these problems.

Was anyone discussing South Korea? The "fact" in dispute is David's claim that North Korea has the highest mortality rate. Try to keep up.

Particularly amazing with the typhoons, since South Korea is farther out in the ocean than North Korea is.

If your point is that South Korea is better able to deal with natural disasters than North Korea, that's obvious.

You see, I've been listening to creeps apologizing for communist hellholes for thirty years.

I don't think David or his sources were apologizing for North Korea. His sources make it clear they think North Korea's government deserves some of the blame. How is that "creepy?" (I share your disdain for creep apologists, though. I don't have much good to say about creep apologists for American terrorists Reagan, Ollie North, etc.)

NORTH KOREA - Starvation Stalks a Wasted Land
By David Woo
Published: Monday, June 29, 1998

"Due to extensive flooding beginning in August of 1995 and periods of severe drought, most of the topsoil has been washed away and the farmland has been left naked. It is a disaster of major proportions," said Manzoor Ahmed, director of the UNICEF office in Japan. Because of a severe drought in the summer of 1997, the maize harvest was reduced by half. Tidal waves from Typhoon Winnie in August stunted the rice harvest. And UNICEF reported that it had observed severe physical problems among children such as night blindness, which eventually leads to total blindness, rickets and scurvy. Also, many North Koreans are developing stomach diseases because of contaminated water. The sanitation and water-supply systems are dysfunctional, and the people are digging shallow wells for drinking water when the topsoil is contaminated from poor sanitation.
. . .

In April the director of the U.N.'s World Food Program, or WFP, Catherine Bertini, visited North Korea to assess the situation. She met with Vice President Ri Jong-ok, Deputy Premier Kong Jin-tae and other officials. "We know that the situation is critical," says Bertini. "The entire population is particularly vulnerable after the harsh winter, but we are most concerned about the children, who will suffer lifelong mental and physical damage if they do not receive adequate nutrition." Bertini has been deeply disappointed by the lack of cooperation she has received from the North Korean leaders.
. . .

Posted on Wed, 14 Apr 1999 15:11:22 GMT
Written by Stephanie Kriner, Staff Writer, DisasterRelief.org

According to humanitarian relief agencies, foreign government delegations that have visited North Korea, and South Korean intelligence sources, the ongoing famine already has killed at least two to three million. The current famine began in 1995 after a series of disasters, including record floods and severe droughts, devastated the country's harvests. Those assaults by Mother Nature were compounded by poor land use policies and a centrally planned economy that failed to adapt to the problems. The North Korea government consistently has denied the claims of widespread starvation, although it has issued international appeals for food relief.

Here's an excerpt from the Christian Science Monitor. (Are they leftists?)

Tidal waves caused by typhoon Winnie flooded 265,900 acres of North Korean farmland, and destroyed more than 10,000 buildings in three western coastal provinces, official news reports said. The damage follows a severe heat wave in July that aggravated food shortages in the country. Meanwhile, China estimated the typhoon caused $2.7 billion in damages after it battered the eastern coast last week.

I see no reason to believe these authors are making up "droughts." Or that the typhoon damage could've been avoided by a capitalist society.

The "droughts" and other natural disasters that somehow seem to affect only communist countries and avoid their neighbors are one of the oldest canards in the book, spouted by the Left to defend their beloved Marxism, and to make excuses for the fact that communist countries just plain cannot feed themselves.

I haven't seen any Lefties defending their beloved Marxism. Are the Vietnamese unable to feed themselves? Would the Nicaraguans have been able to feed themselves if we hadn't turned
our terrorists loose on them? Would Cuba be prospering if the U.S. removed all trade and travel restrictions? You conveniently ignore one of the reasons some communist countries experience hardships -- American foreign policy.

The "drought" excuse for starvation was horseshit when I was in college, it was horseshit back in the 1950s, and it's horseshit now. I don't know how old you are, but communist "droughts" have been a running gag for decades.

Drought's an excuse for starvation? When the people of Afghanistan, India, Ethiopia, etc., experience wide-spread starvation because of droughts and their neighbors don't, do you consider those running gags, too? Or is it only when drought-inducing starvation occurs primarliy in communist countries that you think it's "horseshit?"

South Korea has been having dry weather too. How many people starved there?

None, I hope. I think South Korea has an extensive irrigation system. And of course the advantages of being a vibrant capitalist society trading with the world's major markets, with all the concomitant priveleges -- IMF loans, rebuilding help after the war, etc.

What does that have to do with whether or not North Korea has the world's highest mortality rate?