North Koreans are being forced to make fertilizer for the regime. A source in Beijing on Sunday said, "Fertilizer is essential for the spring sowing season, but North Korea has almost no chemical fertilizer, so the government ordered every person to produce hundreds of kilograms."

In North Korea, fertilizer is usually made by mixing human feces with straw, but the excrement is harder to come by than one might expect. The source said, "There are cases of theft of squat toilets because of this, and people are putting locks on their lavatories to prevent this."

Until 2007, South Korea gave North Korea some 300,000 tons of chemical fertilizer a year. Until last year, farmers survived on the remainder and with help from China, but the reserves have run out and assistance from Beijing dwindled as the regime ignored Chinese pleas to desist from its nuclear and missile tests.

A North Korea expert in China said, "North Koreans are not only forced to produce more fertilizer but also to collect more scrap metal. The dire domestic situation could explain why the regime has been spouting so much belligerent rhetoric recently."

