North Korea opens party meeting on agriculture amid food crisis

North Korea has convened an "enlarged" meeting of the ruling Workers' Party to discuss agricultural issues, state media reported on Monday, amid a food crisis afflicting the country.

State news agency KCNA said the meeting, presided over by leader Kim Jong Un, would review the progress made in 2022 following the launch of a new rural development strategy intended to increase agricultural production.

The meeting was also to "decide on the immediate important tasks and the urgent tasks arising at the present stage of the national economic development and the practical ways for implementing them," KCNA said.

The agency said that participants approved agenda items for the meeting, which was set to continue. No further details were initially disclosed.

At the end of 2021, North Korea launched its new rural revolution some six months after Kim had warned his nation that food supplies might be deteriorating.

The country, which is heavily isolated because of its nuclear weapons programme, has been dependent on food aid from outside for many years due to natural disasters and because of its own mismanagement.

The coronavirus pandemic also hit the country hard.

Last week, news agency Yonhap cited South Korean Unification Minister Kwon Young-se as saying that North Korea's food shortages appeared to be worsening.

"But the North's situation does not seem to have reached a point where people are dying of starvation," Kwon was quoted as saying at a parliamentary committee session.

According to the UN World Food Programme, some 10.7 millionpeople are undernourished in North Korea, which has a population of 25.9 million.