North Korean leader Kim Jong Un presided over a plenary meeting of the Workers’ Party of Korea focused on agricultural development, state media reported Monday. Photo by KCNA/EPA-EFE
SEOUL, Feb. 27 (UPI) — North Korea kicked off a meeting of its ruling Workers’ Party to lay out plans for the country’s agricultural sector, state media reported Monday, amid food shortages that some experts believe could be the worst in decades.
A plenary meeting of the party’s central committee convened on Sunday in order to discuss “urgent tasks arising at the present stage of the national economic development and the practical ways for implementing them,” state-run Korean Central News Agency reported.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un presided over the meeting, which also featured a review of last year’s “program for the rural revolution in the new era,” the KCNA report said.
North Korea’s economy has suffered under ongoing global sanctions and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, with reports of shortfalls in crop production and distribution issues leading to a severe food crisis.
Last week, South Korea’s Unification Ministry said that the food situation appeared to be worsening in some regions, causing “continuous starvation deaths.” A ministry spokesperson added that Pyongyang apparently reached out to the United Nations’ World Food Program for assistance, although no official request was recorded.
A report by monitoring website 38 North last month concluded that North Korea is undergoing the worst period of food insecurity it has faced since a mass famine devastated the country almost 30 years ago.
This week’s session comes just two months after another plenary meeting focusing on agriculture. The frequency is unusual for North Korea, which may indicate the urgency of the crisis.
In December, the party highlighted grain production as the country’s top economic priority.
North Korea faces chronic food insecurity and has been hit with periodic famines, including one in the 1990s that killed upward of 1 million people, according to some estimates.