The North Korean famine that occurred from 1994 to 1998

Natsios said that his book was based on research and interviews he did on a June 1997 trip to North Korea while working for World Vision-USA. "I didn't see a famine at first," Natsios said. But two associates convinced him to conduct interviews with Korean refugees who were crossing the Chinese border to find food. Those interviews, along with 1600 other refugee interviews by another NGO as well as the border dispatches of South China Morning Post reporter Jasper Becker, convinced Natsios that a full-blown famine was at hand.