North Korean leader Kim Jong Un again admitted that there is a “food problem” in the country, during a speech that ended an important five-day meeting of his Korean Workers’ Party.
The end-of-the-year speech, summarized by the state media KCNA, made a brief reference to “the work of emergency epidemic prevention”.
North Korea remained silent during the pandemic, further isolated itself from the rest of the world and did not recognize a single domestic case of Covid-19.
Most of Kim’s speech focused on the need to increase the country’s agricultural productivity.
He also praised the military advances made during his tenth year in power, but made no specific mention of South Korea or the United States, other than a brief reference to political orientations for inter-Korean relations and foreign affairs.
While the North Korean leader did not detail the degree of food shortages, the World Food Organization warned of severe food shortages in the country in 2021, including a deficit of hundreds of thousands of tons of rice.
The problem has been compounded by severe flooding in some of the country’s most fertile rice-growing regions.
This is not the first time Kim has recognized the food situation in the country. In April, KCNA reported that the leader told people about another “Hard March” while speaking at a high-level political meeting.
The term “Hard March” refers to a period of devastating famine in the early 1990s, when North Korea’s economy collapsed after the collapse of the Soviet Union, which shut down the flow of aid to the country.
It is estimated that hundreds of thousands of people — or up to 10% of the country’s population — died of starvation during this period.
In June, Kim admitted that the country was facing a “tense food situation” due to the typhoon and floods of 2020.
In the same month, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) estimated that North Korea lacks around 860,000 tonnes of food — enough for just over two months of supply.
On Saturday (31), KCNA also reported Kim’s recognition of “unfavorable conditions this year” and his desire to “increase agricultural production and completely solve the country’s food problem.”
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Reference: CNN Brasil
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