North Korea faces an “unusual” and “severe” drought this year, and the government is working to protect crops, state media reported yesterday.
Natural disasters tend to have an outsized impact on the diplomatically isolated country due to its weak infrastructure and economy.
Elizabeth Salmon, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea, in February said that food shortages are already a key concern.
Photo: Reuters
“An unusual drought has recently persisted across much of the country, a phenomenon rarely seen in previous years,” Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.
“Workers across various regions are concentrating all efforts on protecting early-season crops from the drought,” KCNA reported.
In a separate report, it said that North Korean Premier Pak Thae-song carried out on-site inspections at farms in South Pyongan and North Hwanghae provinces to discuss “countermeasures to minimize drought damage.”
He called for fully identifying and efficiently using all available water sources, adding that a successful harvest hinged on overcoming this year’s “severe drought,” KCNA said.
South Korea — Asia’s fourth-largest economy — also endured a prolonged drought last year that hit the eastern coastal city of Gangneung.
That dry spell forced authorities to implement water restrictions, including shutting off 75 percent of household meters across the city.
KCNA said that North Korean cities and counties were carrying out “repairs to the gates of reservoirs and waterways.”
Workers are also implementing “technical measures,” boosting the drought resistance of wheat and barley, and striving to ensure the stable growth of early-season crops, it added.
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