North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has formally acknowledged that his country is facing food shortages, according to the BBC.
‘The people’s food situation is now getting tense,’ Kim reportedly said during the opening of the 3rd Plenary Meeting of the 8th Central Committee of the ruling Workers’ Party in Pyongyang.
He said the agricultural sector had failed to meet its grain targets due to typhoons last year, which caused flooding.
The BBC also notes that one effect of North Korea’s closing its borders to contain the spread of Covid-19 is that trade with China has plummeted. North Korea relies on China for food, fertiliser and fuel.
There are reports that food prices have spiked, with NK News reporting that a kilogram of bananas costs $45.
In April, Kim made a rare admission of looming hardship, calling on officials to ‘wage another, more difficult “Arduous March” in order to relieve our people of the difficulty, even a little’.
The Arduous March is a term used by North Korea officials to refer to the country’s struggle during the 1990s famine, when the fall of the Soviet Union left North Korea without crucial aid.
The total number of North Koreans who starved to death at the time is not known, but estimates range up to three million.
[Photo: Eric Lafforgue]