(2nd LD) N. Korea opens key party meeting on agriculture amid food crisis

(ATTN: UPDATES with more details throughout; ADDS byline)
By Kim Soo-yeon

SEOUL, Feb. 27 (Yonhap) -- North Korea has convened a key party meeting to discuss agricultural issues, with its leader Kim Jong-un in attendance, Pyongyang's state media said Monday, as the country is grappling with severe food shortages.

The North's leader Kim presided over the seventh enlarged plenary meeting of the eighth Central Committee of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) on Sunday to discuss issues of agricultural development, according to the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

The rare party meeting came as the North's food situation appears to have deteriorated amid deepening economic hardships caused by border lockdowns to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and global sanctions on its nuclear and missile programs.

The North's media said the meeting will review major achievements from last year, the first year of the implementation of the country's programs on a rural revolution for the new era.

The session will also decide on "the immediate important tasks and the urgent tasks arising at the present stage of the national economic development and the practical ways for implementing them," the KCNA said in an English-language report.

It said participants unanimously approved agenda items and discussed the first one, without elaborating. The plenary meeting will continue, the KCNA said, without providing further details.

The Sunday session was attended by key party members, including Premier Kim Tok-hun and Jo Yong-won, the party secretary for organizational affairs, with related party officials also participating in it via video link.

Observers said the North's rare move to convene a party plenary meeting for the second time in about two months points to the urgency to deal with the country's food crisis.

North Korea picked raising grain production as the No. 1 task among 12 major economic priorities for this year during its key party meeting late last year.

Earlier this month, the WPK's politburo said "a turning point" is needed to promote "radical change in agricultural development."

South Korea's unification ministry earlier said the North's food crisis appears to be worsening, with more deaths from starvation being reported recently in "some regions."

The ministry handling inter-Korean affairs said a fall in crop production and disrupted food distribution are apparently attributable to the North's food shortages.

The North's crop output is estimated to have fallen 3.8 percent on-year to 4.51 million tons last year, according to a report by the South's Rural Development Administration.

North Korea's crackdown on grain transactions at marketplaces also appears to have disrupted food distribution, observers said. The policy is designed to restrict grain trades at state-run facilities, prompting farmers and merchants to refrain from releasing reserved grains due to fears of losses.

North Korea underwent a massive famine and related deaths during the period of the Arduous March in the 1990s. Seoul's ministry said the current food situation seems to be "grave" although it does not appear to be similar to what it was during the Arduous March.

sooyeon@yna.co.kr
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