North Korea's Kim visits tractor factory amid food crisis

SEOUL - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited the Kumsong Tractor Factory on Wednesday alongside his powerful sister, Ms Kim Yo Jong, amid the ongoing food crisis, state media Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Thursday.

The visit, accompanied by senior officials, saw the leader urge the factory to play an important role in solving the food crisis, which he described as an important business for the country’s future.

Mr Kim also called for goals to be set to modernise the country’s agricultural machinery production process and for it to reach “world-class” level, the report said.

North Korea has been pushing agriculture amid growing concerns over food shortages. Some analysts have said the factory may also manufacture parts for missile launch vehicles.

South Korea’s Unification Minister Kim Yung-ho, charged with handling relations with its neighbour, said earlier in 2023 that the food situation in the North is “still bad” despite a small increase in trade with China.

The North has suffered serious food shortages in recent decades, including famine in the 1990s, often as a result of natural disasters, and international experts have warned that border closures during the Covid-19 pandemic worsened matters.

Earlier this week, Mr Kim Jong Un criticised top officials over their response to flood damage including over 270ha of rice paddies, KCNA said.

Last week, the news agency also reported that Mr Kim Jong Un had

inspected typhoon-hit farmlands

after tropical storm Khanun swept over the Korean Peninsula.

Mr Kim Jong Un praised the military’s efforts to salvage crops and said the troops were mobilised because they cannot lose a patch of farmland “to the natural rampage on the agricultural front directly related with the people’s living”, the report said. REUTERS