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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vowed to strengthen state control over agriculture and make all available efforts to increase grain production, state media reported, 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 believe the food situation is the worst it has been under Kim’s rule, they still say they see no signs of imminent famine or mass deaths.
During a recent four-day ruling Workers’ Party meeting, Kim said his government sees agricultural development as a matter of “strategic” importance and that farming goals should be settled without fail, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.
“In order to attain the gigantic long-term objective of rural development, it is necessary to decisively strengthen the party guidance over the agricultural sector and improve the rural party work,” Kim was quoted as saying.
He said 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.
