The Supreme leader of North Korea, Kim Jong Un has pledged to bolster state control over agriculture and make all available efforts to increase grain production, state media reported.
This pronouncement comes as the country faces a worsening food shortage.
The prospect for an early resolution of its food insecurity is still dim, as North Korea restricts the operation of markets and devotes much of its scarce resources to its nuclear program.
While experts are of the belief that the food situation is the worst it has ever been under Kim’s rule, they still claim that they see no signs of imminent famine or mass deaths.
According to the official state news agency, Kim averred during a recent four-day ruling Workers’ Party meeting, that his government regards agricultural development as a matter of “strategic” importance and that farming goals should be settled without fail.
“In order to attain the gigantic long-term objective of rural development, it is necessary to decisively strengthen the party’s guidance over the agricultural sector and improve the rural party work.”
Kim Jong Un
Kim insisted that all state sectors and units must provide “mental and moral, material and technical support and assistance to the rural communities,” saying that should be “a trend of the whole society.”
Also, the North Korean leader ordered officials to overcome unspecified “lopsidedness in the guidance on farming” and concentrate on increasing farm yields. He iterated that the provincial, city and county authorities must boost their guidance on agriculture.
North Korea’s state media did not elaborate on how Kim intends to reinforce and improve his government’s control over agriculture.
However, experts have said that North Korean authorities’ attempts to supply grain via state-run facilities and restrict private dealings at markets was considered as one of the reasons behind the worsened food situation.
Others include decreased personal incomes, pandemic-related border curbs that blocked unofficial rice purchases from China and the overall economic difficulties deepened by mismanagement, COVID-19 and international sanctions.
Last year, North Korea’s grain production was estimated at 4.5 million tons, a 3.8% drop from a year earlier, according to South Korean assessments.
In the previous decade, its annual production was an estimated 4.4 million to 4.8 million tons. South Korea’s spy agency has disclosed that North Korea needs 5.5 million tons of grain to feed its 25 million people each year.
“It is difficult to be optimistic about the food supply as long as Pyongyang insists on implementing North Korean style socialism and isolating the country from international trade and assistance while developing nuclear missiles,” Leif-Eric Easley, a Professor at Ewha University in Seoul, opined.
Possible Acknowledgement Of Worsening Food Situation
Holding a ruling party’s Central Committee meeting focused on agriculture, while previous plenary meetings mostly concentrated on the country’s nuclear program or rivalries with the United States and South Korea, could be an acknowledgement that the food situation is serious.
However, some experts claim that the country also likely aims to burnish Kim’s image as a leader who cares for his people and boost domestic support of his push to expand his nuclear arsenal.
Kim also called for faster construction of new irrigation systems that would help the country cope with extreme weather conditions brought by climate change.
Moreover, Kim urged for machinery manufacturers to build and supply more efficient farming machines and for workers to accelerate their efforts to reclaim timelines to expand farming.
According to the state news agency, Kim praised the plenary meeting for producing more definite proposals that would put agriculture on a “stable and sustained development track” and accelerate overall prosperity.
But then again, the account did not give further specifics.
