Threat of famine in North Korea, Kim Jong Un orders reforms

North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un gave instructions to revamp irrigation systems, build modern farm machinery and expand farmland to boost food production, state media said today, according to Reuters.

South Korea has warned there is a growing food crisis in the North, causing a recent surge in deaths by starvation in some parts of the country.

It is estimated the crop production in the North fell nearly 4 per cent in 2022.

This is in part due to a failure of a new grain policy that was set to limit private crop transactions. But also the North Korean economy has been hit by typhoons, floods, sanctions over its aggressive nuclear missile programmes with the South, border closures and pandemic lockdowns and a significant decline in trade with China.

Lim Eul-chul, a professor of North Korean studies at Kyungnam University in South Korea, said, “The state media report said they set new goals and action plans, but I don’t see anything new as all of the elements including irrigation and reclamation have already been raised before.”

And there is no change in the grain policy that has a part to play in the food shortages, according to Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean studies in Seoul.

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