North Korea: Kim Jong-un holds ruling party meeting to discuss economy

This week, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un held a meeting of the nation’s ruling party to discuss the economy. The meeting comes amidst fears of food shortages.

North Korean state media outlet KCNA reported that Kim oversaw the seventh plenary meeting of the ruling Worker’s Party 8th Central Committee on Sunday. The meeting reviewed rural development projects, as international experts expressed concerns that food insecurity in North Korea worsened due to sanctions and COVID-19 lockdowns.

KCNA reported that the meeting approved agenda items on the first day, and the meeting is still continuing. KCNA announced the meeting early this month, saying at the time that it was “a very important and urgent task to establish the correct strategy for the development of agriculture.”

South Korea also said this month that North Korea’s food situation appears to have worsened. Officials in Seoul at the time referred to the meeting as the ruling party’s de facto acknowledgement of food shortages.

The US-based 38 North program, which monitors North Korea, said in a report that “food availability has likely fallen below the bare minimum with regard to human needs,” with the isolated nation’s food security at its worst since the 1990s when North Korea suffered famines.

North Korea is currently under sanctions over its weapons program, which Pyongyang continues to develop. Pyongyang has launched a record number of missiles in the past year and this year so far, with fears that a nuclear test may be in the works for the first time in years.

KCNA reported on Tuesday that Kim has since ordered a “radical change” in the nation’s agricultural production during the second day of the ongoing meeting. Kim stressed the importance of meeting the grain production targets and transforming production to set down the “foundation for the stable and sustained development of agriculture.”

“He expressed the fixed determination and will of the Party’s Central Committee to bring about a revolutionary turn in the agricultural production without fail, saying that nothing is impossible as long as the strong leadership system is established in the whole Party and there is the united might of all the people,” said KCNA.