North Korea ruling party members meet to discuss agricultural concerns

The members of North Korea’s ruling Worker’s Party are set to meet this month to discuss the nation’s agricultural concerns. The meeting comes amidst international assessments that North Korea’s food insecurity has worsened in light of sanctions and the COVID-19 pandemic.

North Korean state news outlet KCNA reported that the Worker’s Party politburo on Sunday decided that a larger plenary meeting of the Central Committee will take place in late February. The politburo reportedly acknowledged that urgent action 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 in the present stage of the struggle to promote the overall development of socialist construction,” said KCNA.

“Food availability has likely fallen below the bare minimum with regard to human needs,” said a report by the US-led 38 North Program that monitors North Korea which was published in January, noting that food insecurity in North Korea has reached its worst since the famines back in the 1990s.

“Resolving North Korea’s chronic food insecurity would require, among other things, strengthening property rights, opening and revitalizing the industrial and service sectors of the economy, and embracing an export-oriented model,” the report also said. “The regime, which fears internal competition and its own demise, has so far proved itself unwilling to pursue such reforms.”

North Korea is currently under international sanctions over its nuclear programs, with concerns that Pyongyang may be gearing up for its first nuclear test.

On Tuesday, KCNA reported that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un pledged to expand military drills and boost the nation’s war readiness posture ahead of a military anniversary. Kim presided over a meeting of the central military commission of the ruling party as officials discussed “major military and political tasks” for the year and the “long-term issues concerning the orientation for army building.”

North Korea is set to celebrate the founding anniversary of its military on Wednesday and stage a military parade to mark the occasion. Commercial satellite images showed North Korean troops practicing in formation in Pyongyang.