The nation faces an “unusual” and “severe” drought this year and is working to protect crops, state media said.
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, said in February that food shortages are already a key concern.
“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) said.
“Workers across various regions are concentrating all efforts on protecting early-season crops from the drought,” it added.
In a separate report, KCNA said Premier Pak Thae-song carried out on-site inspections at farms in South Pyongan and North Hwanghae provinces to discuss “countermeasures to minimise 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 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. — AFP
