(Photo : JUNG YEON-JE/AFP via Getty Images)
Numerous North Koreans have starved to death, according to recent reports.
Kim Jong Un launched a major agricultural conference on Monday amid reports of a North Korean food shortage, per a state media report.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hampered agricultural and Chinese imports, South Korean analysts believe North Korea's food shortage is short 1 million tons of grain, 20% of its annual requirement, according to AP News.
Recent reports indicated an untold number of North Koreans have reportedly starved to death. Nonetheless, North Korea has not seen widespread fatalities or hunger.
Senior party leaders evaluated last year's work on state aims to complete "rural revolution in the new age" at a conference of the governing Workers' Party that started on Sunday, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.
The Kim Jong Un party's Central Committee meeting would highlight immediate, significant agricultural challenges and "urgent tasks emerging" at the current stage of North Korea's economic growth, according to the report.
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North Korean Grain Output Not Good Enough
North Korea's food shortage indicates grain output fell by 3.8% from the last year to an estimated 4.5 million tons, according to estimates from South Korea. For the previous ten years, the annual grain production has plateaued at around 4.8 million tons, per VOA.
Although it requires roughly 5.5 million tons of grain annually to sustain its 25 million people, North Korea typically falls short by about 1 million tons annually.
Unofficial Chinese grain purchases cover half the shortfall. Kwon Tae-jin, a senior economist at South Korea's private GS&J Institute, called the remaining deficit "unresolved."
The current food situation is not nearly as dire compared to the 1990s when famine killed hundreds of thousands of North Koreans.
COVID-19 limitations further shook an economy damaged by decades of mismanagement and severe US-led sanctions over Kim's nuclear program, and some analysts think that cases of North Korean food shortage are probably at their worst since Kim Jong Un took office in 2011, per ABC News.
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