SEOUL, Feb 27 (Portal) – North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has opened a meeting with ruling party officials to discuss improving the country’s economy and agricultural sector, state media reported on Monday, amid fears of food shortages and a increasing humanitarian crisis.
International experts say food insecurity has worsened in the isolated nation amid sanctions and COVID-19 lockdowns.
Kim on Sunday oversaw the seventh expanded plenary session of the 8th Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea, which reviewed rural development projects, state news agency KCNA reported.
On the first day, the assembly approved the agenda items, KCNA reported, but provided few details. The meeting is underway, the report added.
Announcing the February meeting, KCNA said it is “a very important and urgent task to establish the right strategy for agricultural development.”
North Korea’s food situation appears to have deteriorated, South Korea said this month, with Seoul officials pointing to the meeting as a de facto acknowledgment of serious shortages.
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Last month, the US-based program 38 North, which monitors North Korea, said in a report that “food availability has likely fallen below the absolute minimum in relation to human needs,” with food insecurity at its worst since the famines in the United States 1990s is.
North Korea is under severe international sanctions for its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs, and in recent years its limited border trade has been all but stifled by self-imposed lockdowns to prevent COVID-19.
Reporting by Josh Smith. Editing by Gerry Doyle
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