North Korean leader attends groundbreaking ceremonies amid concerns for isolated country’s food situation.

Kim “personally pressed the blast button” and gave “warm encouragement” to construction workers at the groundbreaking ceremony for the housing project, the mouthpiece Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Thursday.

Kim also shovelled the first spade of earth for a greenhouse farm for “mass-producing tasty and nutritious green, fruit and functional vegetables”, the KCNA said.

“All the participants loudly chanted slogans to show their faith and will to fully display heroism and creativity as builders and defenders for the people’s happiness, mindful of the great trust and expectation of the respected General Secretary who entrusted them with an important project for realising the ideal of the people,” the KCNA said, referring to Kim by one of his numerous official titles.

Kim, the third generation of his family to rule North Korea, enjoys a God-like status in his secretive country, where all political opposition and independent media are ruthlessly suppressed.

The groundbreaking ceremonies come after Kim last week staged a massive military parade in Pyongyang that prominently featured his daughter, Kim Ju Ae, and about a dozen intercontinental ballistic missiles.

North Korea’s economy, estimated to be between one-fortieth and one-fiftieth the size of that of neighbouring South Korea, was hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, as tough border controls exacerbated the damage of chronic mismanagement and US-led sanctions targeting the country’s weapons development.

Gross domestic product (GDP) shrank for a second straight year in 2021, according to South Korea’s central bank.

During a ruling party meeting in December, officials emphasised construction and agricultural activities that are less dependent on trade as key focuses for economic development.

Despite international sanctions and censure, Kim has stated his intention to develop the world’s most powerful nuclear force and described his country’s nuclear-state status as “irreversible”.

North Korea’s ruling Korean Workers’ Party is due to hold a major meeting later this month to discuss the “urgent” task of improving agricultural production as outside analysts and officials warn that food shortage may be worsening inside the country.

More than four in 10 North Koreans were undernourished between 2019 and 2021, according to UN estimates.

North Korea in September restarted freight train services with China, with which it conducts more than 90 percent of its trade.

North Korean trucks have also resumed travel between the Chinese city of Hunchun and North Korea’s Rason, Japan’s Nikkei newspaper reported on Thursday.