North Korea’s big bunny farm

Faced with recurrent food shortages and a barely-functioning economy, North Korea has finally made a tough policy call. Did Kim Jong Il relax stifling state controls? Stop spending the country’s meager resources on its military? Stop provoking the world community and return to the international economic system?

Of course not. Instead, he’s invested in giant bunnies:

An east German pensioner who breeds rabbits the size of dogs has been asked by North Korea to help set up a big bunny farm to alleviate food shortages in the communist country. Now journalists and rabbit gourmets from around the world are thumping at his door. […]

Szmolinsky, 67, from the eastern town of Eberswalde near Berlin, recalls how the North Korean embassy approached his regional breeding federation and enquired whether it might be willing to sell some rabbits to set up a breeding farm in North Korea. He was the natural choice for the job.

“They’ll be used to help feed the population,” Szmolinsky told SPIEGEL ONLINE. “I’ve sent them 12 rabbits so far, they’re in a petting zoo for now. I’ll be travelling to North Korea in April to advise them on how to set up a breeding farm. A delegation was here and I’ve already given them a book of tips.”