Food crisis in North Korea

North Korea is facing a severe food crisis with prices of essential commodities rising through the roof. North Korea’s food crisis started as the country closed its borders and stopped trade in 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic broke out. Now the crisis has deepened and Kim Jong Un has reportedly accepted the grim situation. He said during a recent meeting with the central committee of the ruling Workers’ Party that North Korea’s food supply is strained and “getting tense”.

The crisis appears to be bigger than what it seems as reports claimed that a packet of coffee in the capital Pyongyang has gone up to $100 (Rs. 7,381 approx). The price of a small packet of black tea has gone up to $70 (Rs. 5,167) while one kilogram of bananas cost $45 (Rs.3,336 approx). A bottle of shampoo is selling at $200 in Pyongyang. Rice and fuel prices have remained stable while the prices of imported products like sugar, soybean oil and flour have skyrocketed. A report by Radio Free Asia claimed that some North Korean farmers were asked to contribute 2 litres of their urine each day to help produce fertilizer. Some families have started selling furniture to raise cash for food. The number of homeless children scavenging for food is also rising in some parts of the country.

Recently, United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FHO) estimated that North Korea is short of approximately 8,60,000 tons of food, or equivalent to just over two months of nationwide supplies. North Korea relies heavily on imports and aid from China to fill gaps that local food production can’t cover. As a result, trade with China has plummeted. The imports have come down to $500 million from $2.5 billion, according to Chinese official customs data. This year in April, Kim made a rare admission of looming hardship, calling on officials to “wage another, more difficult, ‘Arduous March’ to relieve our people of the difficulty, even a little.” The Arduous March is a term used by North Korean officials to refer to the period of mass starvation from 1994 to 1998.

The major causes behind this food shortage are the closing of borders in wake of Covid-19 since the sealed borders are an impediment to food aid from donor nations; international sanctions; and extensive flooding. The impoverished country, which is under multiple sets of international sanctions over its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes has long struggled to feed itself, suffering chronic food shortages. “People’s food situation is now getting tense as the agriculture sector failed to fulfil its grain production plan due to the damage by a typhoon last year”, Kim said. Despite the worrying situation, Kim suggested that borders will remain shut, on grounds that the state will maintain its “anti- epidemic state under the present condition.” When he took power a decade ago, one of his first promises was to ensure that his long-suffering people would “no longer have to tighten their belt.” But those economic plans have surely suffered a setback. Today, the world needs to focus on pressuring the government to take immediate and major steps to address the health, safety and rights of its people. It is vitally important for the world to remember the people of North Korea, not just its nuclear weapons.

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