(SEOUL) North Korea has deployed non-manual workers across farms across the country to avert heavy crop losses from the ongoing drought, state media said Wednesday.
Posted at 9:58 p.m.
The nuclear-armed country, which is under international sanctions for its banned weapons programs, suffers from chronic food shortages.
North Korea is particularly vulnerable to natural disasters, including floods and drought, due to lack of infrastructure, deforestation and decades of state mismanagement.
Rodong Sinmunthe official newspaper of North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party, claimed on Wednesday that government officials, employees working in businesses and factories “joined the fight in drought-stricken regions.”
“As soon as they arrived, they started watering, working with the farmers in order to fight against nature,” according to the newspaper.
The article, however, did not specify the extent of the damage suffered so far, but it specifies that these measures aim to limit the consequences of the current drought wave and to “prevent possible further damage”.
According to the official KCNA news agency, citing the country’s meteorological services, the dry spell is expected to continue throughout the week.
“Light rain” is expected on Friday, “but it will not be helpful in resolving the drought”, she added.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called for action to improve the “tense” food situation, caused by the pandemic, typhoons and international sanctions.
Since the beginning of 2020, North Korea has isolated itself from the rest of the world to protect itself from the pandemic. It briefly reopened its border with China to freight transport earlier this year.
Pyongyang said it had not registered any COVID-19 cases on its soil.
North Korea, whose economy and agriculture are in ruins after decades of disastrous management and resources poured into the nuclear program, suffered a deadly famine in the second half of the 1990s.
Hundreds of thousands of people died then, some estimates point to millions of victims.