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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called for a "radical change" to the country's agricultural production amid severe food shortages, state media reported Tuesday. Photo by KCNA/EPA-EFE

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called for a “radical change” to the country’s agricultural production amid severe food shortages, state media reported Tuesday. Photo by KCNA/EPA-EFE

SEOUL, Feb. 28 (UPI) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called for a “radical change in the agricultural production” of his isolated country amid food shortages that outside experts say are worsening, state media reported Tuesday.

Kim made his remarks on the second day of a plenary meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party that was convened to address the country’s crop yields and rural development.

The goal of the session was to find ways “for successfully attaining the grain production goal this year and bringing about a radical change in the agricultural production within a few years,” Kim said, according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency.

North Korea’s economy has suffered under ongoing global sanctions and border closures meant to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, with reports of shortfalls in crop production and distribution problems leading to a severe food crisis.

Kim said that the government was determined to bring about a “revolutionary turn” in agricultural production.

“Nothing is impossible as long as the strong leadership system is established in the whole party and there is the united might of all the people,” he added, according to KCNA.

Last week, South Korea’s Unification Ministry said that the food situation appeared to be worsening in some regions, causing “continuous starvation deaths.”

North Korea produced 4.5 million tons of food crops last year, according to the South Korean government’s Rural Development Agency, a decrease of 3.8% from the year before and an estimated shortage of 1 million tons necessary to feed the population.

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 underscore 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.

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