N. Korea cracks down on grain trade at markets, food supply likely disrupted: Seoul ministry

SEOUL, Feb. 16 (Yonhap) -- North Korea has been conducting crackdowns on the trade of grains at marketplaces, as it adopted a new policy in October last year to tighten state control on the distribution of grains, according to Seoul's unification ministry Thursday.

The crackdown has disrupted the distribution amid the North's serious food crisis, according to the ministry handling inter-Korean affairs.

"There are signs that North Korean authorities have been seeking to tighten state control on (the food supply) since late last year," a ministry official told reporters on condition of anonymity.

The North has raised its purchasing price of grains for reserves and sold them at prices cheaper than market prices by setting up state-run stations selling grains in recent years.

But the move is said to have generated setbacks in the food supply, as farmers appear to have refrained from selling rice to the stations due to fears of business losses, according to observers.

The ministry said the North's food shortage seems to be worsening, but does not appear to have reached the level of massive starvation and deaths seen during the period of the "Arduous March," a term used by the North that describes the hardships of its people during the famine in the 1990s.

The North is known for chronic food shortages that have been apparently aggravated in recent years amid global sanctions for its nuclear and missile programs, unfavorable weather and border lockdowns caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

sooyeon@yna.co.kr
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