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Why is North Korea becoming hungry?

To expand food production, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has ordered infrastructural improvements and farmland development.

Wednesday (March 1), as he called the powerful Central Committee of the ruling Workers’ Party to adjourn, Kim issued orders to enhance irrigation systems, build cutting-edge farming machinery, and increase arable land.

According to the official Korean Central News Agency, Kim stated that his administration views agricultural development as a matter of “strategic” importance and that farming targets should be set without fail (KCNA).South Korea has warned of a worsening food crisis in the isolated North, including a recent surge in deaths from starvation in some locations, leading to famine. This warning is due in part to what it claimed was the failure of a new grain policy barring private agricultural transactions.

Why is North Korea becoming hungry?

North Korea’s economy has been badly impacted by floods, typhoons, sanctions connected to its nuclear and missile programs, and a sharp decline in trade with China as a result of border closures and Covid-19 lockdowns.The North’s crop production decreased by more than four per cent from the previous year, according to South Korea’s rural development agency, which cited heavy summer rains and other economic factors.