Rabbits to North Korea


North Korea appears to have begun a program to breed rabbits for food, using animals from Germany, as a step to alleviate its acute food shortage, according to NHK.

A German farmer says officials from the North Korean embassy in Berlin visited his rabbit farm in December to buy some male and female rabbits. The farmer also told NHK he arranged to ship the rabbits to North Korea by air.

During World War II my grandfather kept rabbits in Lund, Sweden as a source of meat for his family. I remember my father saying he liked the cute rabbits, and felt sorry when granpa had to kill them.

Not sure how NHK got this story, or what it is supposed to mean, except that North Koreans in crisis are trying to be creative about their food supply. However, a huge problem with rabbits is that they multiply a lot and if the get out in the wild, they will wreck havoc with the local ecosystem - in Australia rabbits are seen as environmental vandals. Marauding rabbits? No thanks.

Meanwhile, South Korea's Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung on Monday said his government will provide unconditional aid to North Korea "on a humanitarian basis." The conservative (thus very critical of the current administration in South Korea) newspaper Chosun Ilbo says this means the government will provide free aid to North Korea without taking into account Pyongyang's missile tests and nuclear test to make sure a second inter-Korean summit happens this year.

Comments

Pandabonium said…
I wonder what they feed the rabbits?
Martin J Frid said…
They will eat grass, and they love dandelions. When I tried to have a vegetable garden in Sweden, the rabbits all synchronized their alarm clocks and cheerfully woke up around 3AM and ate everyting I tried to grow. But that is in summer. In winter they will just sit deep down in their holes underground and make plans for more severe mischief.
Pandabonium said…
So the Koreans will get a "free lunch" on rabbit meat?

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