Rare photos expose hidden 1990s North Korean famine and its lasting scars
Newly released photographs taken by aid worker Kathi Zellweger and journalist Mike Chinoy reveal extreme malnutrition and poverty inside North Korea during the 1990s famine.
Humanitarian Kathi Zellweger and journalist Mike Chinoy have published a collection of previously unseen photographs documenting the severe starvation that struck North Korea in the 1990s after the Soviet Union collapsed. The pictures depict children so thin that ribs are visible, orphanages struggling without state support, and villages erased by catastrophic floods in 1995. While Pyongyang reported 225,000 fatalities, a USAID official suggested the toll could have reached 3.5 million, representing 10-19% of the population.
Zellweger, serving as the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation’s director in Pyongyang, accessed homes and orphanages that journalists could not, revealing the hidden reality behind the regime’s polished public image. Interviews in the accompanying book describe families surviving on the last public rations, with mothers forced to breastfeed sick toddlers due to lack of baby food. Zellweger notes that, despite the tragedy, later visits observed the emergence of markets, mobile phones, and a modest middle class, indicating a shift in North Korean society.
Why it matters
The photos provide rare visual proof of a humanitarian disaster that was long concealed by the North Korean regime.
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