North Korea officially became an independent state, The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), in 1948 under the wing of Stalin's Soviet Union. The Soviets installed Kim Il-sung as the country's ruler and he reigned as dictator until his death in 1994, when he was replaced by the current leader, his son, Kim Jong-il. Since the borders were closed at the end of the Korean War in 1953, the DPRK has managed to virtually isolate itself from the outside world. Practicing their own brand of Communism called Juche or "self-reliance", the country has kept to itself, allowing very few foreigners to enter the country and even fewer of its own citizens to travel outside of the nation's borders. In 1973 a Cultural Revolution-type movement swept throughout the agricultural sector as young Communists reeducated farmers and completely did away with traditional methods of farming. This movement led to the systemized removal of the North Korean countryside that began in 1976, in order to turn every area into square fields for farming. As this policy continued into the 1990's, mountainsides were denuded, causing the erosion of topsoil that led to massive flooding and destruction of farmland. The flooding, combined with the end of economic support from the Soviet Union and other gross mismanagement of agriculture, led to the immense famine that raged into the Twenty-first Century, killing millions. At the height of the famine in 1995, the DPRK government finally requested aid from the international community. To this day such aid is quite controversial because there are countless reports of food aid being resold on the black market or diverted to the military and Communist Party officials. A member of the Bethlehem Project staff personally witnessed this upon seeing a can of cooking oil donated by the United States government being used in an expensive restaurant only for the country's elite. This continues to be a problem, which is why small organizations such as the Bethlehem Project have sprung up inside the country to regulate distribution from within, rather than just importing food. Since 2001 the food crisis has gradually been improving and the starvation rate has dropped. However, malnutrition continues to be a problem since most of the population does not have access to anything other than cornmeal and whatever they can grow in their personal gardens or scavenge. Even in moderately wealthy areas where some foreigners are allowed, children can be seen wandering the fields and countryside looking for whatever roots, herbs, or insects they can bring home to eat. It is because of such lack of dietary variety and proper nutrition that the Bethlehem Project bakery was established.