This is What They Eat to Survive in North Korea 😳
A North Korean defector describes the seasonal survival diet in North Korea, explaining how people eat plants and tree leaves in early summer, grasshoppers and bugs in fall, frozen potatoes and dried cabbage in winter, with spring being the deadliest season when even rats are hard to find.
Summary
This transcript provides a firsthand account of survival eating patterns in North Korea across different seasons. The speaker, appearing to be a North Korean defector or someone with direct experience, describes how food scarcity forces people to eat whatever is available depending on the time of year. In early summer, people consume various plants and even tree leaves, but must be careful after June 1st when many plants become too poisonous to eat safely. Fall brings a diet of insects, particularly grasshoppers and other bugs. Winter survival depends on stored foods like frozen potatoes and dried cabbage. Most dramatically, the speaker identifies spring as the most dangerous time, calling it the season 'where we die' due to extreme food scarcity when even rats - apparently a food source - become impossible to find.
Key Insights
- The speaker states that in North Korea people eat plants and tree leaves in summer, but after June 1st many plants become too poisonous to consume safely
- The speaker describes eating grasshoppers and bugs as a primary food source during fall months
- The speaker explains that winter survival depends on frozen potatoes and dried cabbage as main food sources
- The speaker identifies spring as the deadliest season, stating 'Spring is where we die' due to extreme food scarcity
- The speaker reveals that rats are considered a food source, but become impossible to find during spring months
Topics
Transcript
[0:00] What are you eating over there? In the summertime we do eat [music] more plants, but the thing is after June 1st, like the end of May, a lot of plants become poisonous. So, until then, poison level is not as high, so we can pretty much eat any plants if you really want. Even tree leaves are fine. But after June 1st, we have to be careful what mushroom that we pick up, you know, what plants we eat. In the fall, we eat a lot of grasshoppers [music] and a lot of bugs. And then, in the winter is the time when we eat a lot of frozen potatoes or a dried [music] cabbage. [0:31] Spring is…
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