North Korea has cut food rations for its soldiers for the first time in more than two decades as the Hermit Kingdom plunges into a possible food crisis, officials said this week.
South Korea’s unification ministry, which oversees relations with its northern neighbors, said North Korea’s food situation “appears to have deteriorated”.
FILE: A North Korean boy wields a spade in a cornfield in an area damaged by floods and typhoons on the Soksa-Ri Collective Farm in South Hwanghae Province. (REUTERS/Damir Sagolj/File Photos)
The ministry took note of a Feb. 6 report from North Korea’s state-run KCNA news agency on plans for an “urgent” meeting of the ruling party on agriculture. Such special meetings are rare, according to the Southern Ministry.
Meanwhile, DongA Ilbo, a South Korean newspaper, reported on Wednesday that the North has reduced daily food rations for its soldiers for the first time since 2000.
While the report cannot be 100% confirmed, South Korea’s unification ministry said it and other agencies are monitoring the situation.
FILE – In this Nov. 15, 2020 file photo provided by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attends a Politburo meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party in Pyongyang, North Korea. Kim has ordered the execution of at least two people, banned sea fishing and locked down the capital Pyongyang as part of frantic efforts to protect itself from the coronavirus and its economic damage, South Korea’s spy agency has told lawmakers Friday, November 27, 2020. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP, File) (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP, File)
SPECULATION SWIMMING ABOUT NORTH KOREAN LEADER KIM’S DAUGHTER AFTER A NOTE APPEARANCE: IS HE HIS SUCESSOR?
The report comes after US-based monitoring group 38 North said last week that North Korea’s food supply has “probably fallen below the bare minimum as far as human needs are concerned.”
North Korea is no stranger to severe food shortages, often caused by natural disasters such as floods that damage crops. The country suffered one of its worst famines between 1994 and 1998, when hundreds of thousands of people lost their lives.
In this June 29 photo provided by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un speaks during a Politburo meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party in Pyongyang, North Korea. (AP/Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service)
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The North is under crushing international sanctions over its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile program. In recent years what little trade it had has been virtually disrupted by self-imposed lockdowns to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Reuters contributed to this report.
