WASHINGTON DC, April 16- Mass
starvation in North Korea could
be a hoax. According to recent
reports, despite years of world
wide responses and millions in 
emergency aid, North Korea may
not have a famine at all.

It now appears it may all have
been a complex government
fabrication- no more than a very
successful attempt to attract
hard currency.

Indications are, according to
these same reports, that the
proceeds went to fund an 
elaborate, undisclosed 
government-controlled currency
trading operation.

"The North has scammed us all
big time," said Larry Figleaf of
Save the Children’s Stomachs, a 
Baptist relief fund that, 
according to Figleaf, initiated
an investigation after
discovering that the photos of
starving children provided by the
North Korean government had 
apparently been "deceptively
altered in a photo lab" prior to
submission to the relief outfit.
 
"Regrettably, it would now seem
the Pyongyang government has for
years cynically pretended to the
outside world it desperately needs
humanitarian help when all it’s up
to is a dollar grab," said Sarah 
Sanger, a spokesperson for 
St. Mary’s Baskets, a Catholic 
relief agency.

"To think, this stuff is supposed
to be for emergency relief, and 
they’re reselling it all to the
Chinese for American dollars."

The famine fabrication apparently
runs very deep. "Even most of
their own top people believe it,"
said Figleaf.

As yet, not all relief
organizations are ready to
concede the truth of the new 
reports.
  
"The full story isn’t out yet. It’s
not out till it’s all out. Let’s
take a longer look here before we
cut off the food," said Bob Rhee, a 
prominent korean-american business
leader. Rhee, besides being owner
and president of Rebel Yell, a
national lawn products company, is 
also chairman of 
Koreans for Koreans, a US-based 
Korean unification support
group that also has done extensive 
relief work in the North. 

"We got to wait and see here. These 
reports, these groups behind these
reports, what are they? I haven’t
seen them over there. Remember, 
that regime is pulling Uncle Sam’s
chain right now over nukes. And God
knows our security agencies have 
created a lot of false smoke over
the years. Who’s to say what’s
really up? We just have to be sure
kids aren’t going to die because
big shots pushing buttons in 
Virginia have their disinformation
machine cranked."