ABSTRACT
Economic insecurity can threaten both states and people. More starkly, though, poverty is a critical dimension of human security. The concept of human security accommodates the consideration of a wide range of threats to life, of which poverty is undoubtedly the most significant. Poverty kills directly in huge numbers when people are unable to secure sufficient food to live because they lack the economic means to purchase or produce it, and this situation can arise in a number of ways. Satisfying the ‘basic material needs of humankind’ is not solely an economic task but it is, without doubt, principally achieved by the possession of money, personally and societally. The North Korean famine had natural origins but was, undoubtedly, greatly worsened by the government’s drive for economic self-sufficiency, which saw food imports reduced at the same time as the domestic food supply had dwindled.
