North Korea: Kim Jong Un Presides Agriculture Meet on Food Shortage

Kim Jong Un presided over a major political conference as per local reports, amid outside assessments that the country’s chronic food insecurity is getting worse.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un opened a major political conference devoted to agricultural development on February 27, according to state media, despite outside assessments that the country's chronic food insecurity is worsening.

According to unconfirmed reports, an unknown number of North Koreans have died of hunger. However, there has been no evidence of mass deaths or famine in North Korea, even though its food shortage has likely worsened due to pandemic-related restrictions, persistent international sanctions, and mismanagement.

Senior Workers' Party officials reviewed last year's work under state goals to achieve "rural revolution in the new era" during a high-level meeting that began on Sunday, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.

The report said that the meeting of the party's Central Committee will determine "immediate, important" tasks on agricultural issues and "urgent tasks arising at the present stage of the national economic development".

The unusual frequency of agricultural meetings has fueled speculation that North Korea is currently experiencing severe food shortages.

"The agenda items were unanimously approved and discussed by the participants." The KCNA stated the subject without providing further details.

The meeting is the party's first plenary session dedicated solely to agriculture. The party's powerful politburo said earlier this month that a "turning point is required to dynamically promote radical change in agricultural development," according to the report released on Monday.

After more than two years of strict pandemic lockdown, North Korea reopened freight train traffic with China and Russia last year. More than 90% of North Korea's official external trade passes through the Chinese border.

According to South Korean government estimates, North Korea's grain production last year was 4.5 million tons, a 3.8% decrease from 2020. According to previous South Korean data, the North produced between 4.4 million and 4.8 million tons of grain per year from 2012 to 2021.

North Korea requires about 5.5 million tons of grain per year to feed its 25 million people, so it is about 1 million tons short this year. According to Kwon Tae-jin, a senior economist at the private GS&J Institute in South Korea, in previous years, half of such a gap was usually met by unofficial grain purchases from China, with the rest remaining as an unresolved shortfall.

Mr. Kwon believes that trade restrictions imposed by the pandemic have hampered unofficial rice purchases from China. North Korean authorities' efforts to tighten controls and restrict market activities have also exacerbated the situation, he claims.

It's unclear whether North Korea will take any action to address its food shortages soon. According to some experts, North Korea will use this week's plenary meeting to boost public support for Mr. Kim during his nuclear standoff with the US and its allies.

Despite limited resources, Mr. Kim has aggressively pursued the expansion of his nuclear weapons and missile programmes to pressure Washington into accepting the North's status as a nuclear power and lifting international sanctions against it. North Korea launched an intercontinental ballistic missile and other weapons in displays this month, following a record year of weapons testing in 2022.

Source- The Hindu

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