Members of North Korea’s ruling political party have reportedly scheduled a major political conference designed to improve the agricultural sector of the country, which they are now calling an “urgent task.”
The official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) of North Korea reported the Workers’ Party’s Politburo met on Sunday and agreed to hold another meeting of the party’s Central Committee.
The Central Committee previously held a plenary in December where the country’s economic goals for 2023 were discussed, which included construction and agricultural objectives.
As reported by AP News after the February 4 meeting, KCNA said the party understands that “a turning point is needed to dynamically promote the radical change in agricultural development.
“It is a very important and urgent task to establish the correct strategy for the development of agriculture and take relevant measures for the immediate farming … to promote the overall development of socialist construction,” the KCNA stated, per AP News.
The future meeting is expected to take place in late February, where the committee will review strategies and set new goals regarding their agriculture.
In a report by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, North Korea is listed as one of 45 countries worldwide that require external assistance for food. The FAO evaluates low-income countries across the world based on their grain production and food situation.
The last few years have been challenging for North Korea, in part because the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions cut off trade options with China, one of North Korea’s main allies. North Korea has significantly increased its border security since 2020, resulting in the worsening of its food shortage, per Al Jazeera.
Additionally, worsening weather conditions in the country have resulted in lower agricultural production, as reported by Radio Free Asia.
A study published last month by 38 North, a North Korea-focused website, suggested that hunger in the country is at its worst since the 1990s. Analyst Lucas Rengifo-Keller, the author of the study, believes the country could be at a breaking point.
“Put simply, North Korea teeters on the brink of famine,” wrote Rengifo-Keller.
