SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong-un urged government officials to engineer a “fundamental change” in agricultural production, state media reported Tuesday, amid fears the country is facing growing food shortages.
According to JEE News, Kim said achieving this year’s grain production targets is a top priority and the importance of stable agricultural production during the second day of the seventh extended plenary session of the 8th Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea on Monday. Emphasized.
The report did not specify what steps North Korea would take, but Kim said changes needed to happen in the next few years.
According to the researchers, collective farms account for much of North Korea’s agriculture. Such farms usually host a number of small farmers who produce crops with shared labor.
Kim’s comments came amid reports of growing food shortages in the country, although North Korea has denied suggestions that it cannot provide for its citizens.
Earlier this month, South Korea’s Unification Ministry said the food situation in the North “appears to have worsened”.
The ministry said at the time that it was too rare for North Korea to announce a special meeting on agricultural strategy that had been scheduled for late February.
In his address at Monday’s meeting, JEE News said Kim mentioned the “importance of the development of agricultural productive forces” in ensuring socialist construction.
North Korea is under severe international sanctions over its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs, and its economy is further strained by a strict self-imposed border lockdown aimed at preventing the spread of COVID-19. .
The full extent of North Korea’s food shortages is unclear, but in a January report, the US-based 38 North Project said food insecurity is at its worst level since famine ravaged the country in the 1990s. .
“The availability of food has likely fallen below human needs,” the report said.
North Korea’s pursuit of self-sufficiency means that almost all of its grain is produced domestically, but this has weakened the country, 38 North found.
“Achieving adequate agricultural production in North Korea’s inhospitable terrain has, ironically, created a heavy reliance on imported goods and exposed the country to global shocks, diplomatic disputes and adverse weather,” the report said. is,” the report said.
A long-term solution to the problems lies in part in resolving the deadlock over nuclear weapons and sanctions, but also requires economic reform.
38 The North said that initiating domestic economic reforms would unleash North Korea’s productivity and allow it to export industrial products and tradable services, earn foreign exchange and import bulk grain on a commercially sustainable basis.
