North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un warned of potential food shortages and urged his people to prepare for expanded COVID-19 restrictions as he opened a major political conference to discuss national efforts to save a troubled economy.
Korea’s Central North Central News Agency also said Wednesday that Kim had called for discussions on how the North should deal with the “current international situation,” although it did not mention any specific comments from Kim on the United States or South Korea.
North Korea has so far ignored Allied calls to resume nuclear negotiations, which stalled for two years following the failure of Kim’s ambitious summit with former President Donald Trump over disagreements over the exchange of relief for crippling US-led sanctions Denuclearization steps from the north.
Meanwhile, the northern economy has continued to decline amid pandemic border closings that choked trade with China while devastating typhoons and floods last summer decimated crops.
Observers assessing the situation in North Korea have not yet seen any signs of mass starvation or greater instability, but some analysts say the conditions could set for a perfect storm that undermines food and currency markets and creates public panic. The Korea Development Institute, a think tank of the South Korean government, said last month that the north could face food shortages of around a million tons this year.
During the plenary session of the ruling Labor Party’s Central Committee that opened on Tuesday, Kim urged officials to find ways to increase agricultural production, saying the country’s food situation “is now becoming strained”.
KCNA said Kim has also set “the responsibilities for the state to maintain a perfect anti-epidemic state” – suggesting North Korea would extend its pandemic lockdown despite the stress on its economy.
Experts strongly doubt North Korea’s claim that given its poor health infrastructure and a porous border with China, its most important ally and economic lifeline, it hasn’t had a single COVID-19 case.
Kim had called for a party meeting to review national efforts to rebuild the economy for the first half of the year. While addressing the “adverse” conditions and challenges on Tuesday, Kim also expressed appreciation for the improvements he described as improvements, claiming the country’s industrial output has so far increased 25% year over year, KCNA said.
The report said the Central Committee meeting will continue, but it did not specify when.
North Korea held its first ruling party congress in five years in January, where it presented development plans for the next five years. At that meeting, Kim urged his people to be resilient in the struggle for economic self-sufficiency, called for greater state control over the economy, increased agricultural production, and prioritized the development of the chemical and metal industries.
Experts say these sectors are vital to revitalizing North Korean industrial production, which has been halted by sanctions and imports of factory materials halted amid the pandemic.
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