Faced with a drought, Pyongyang mobilizes its white-collar workers
The North Korean regime has called on officials and staff to mitigate the effects of the drought wave affecting North Korea.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has called for action to improve the “tense” food situation. (Illustration)
AFP
State media reported Wednesday that North Korea has hired non-manual workers on farms across the country to avoid major crop losses from the current drought.
The nuclear-armed country is suffering from chronic food shortages, subject to international sanctions for its banned weapons programs. North Korea is particularly vulnerable to natural disasters, including floods and droughts, due to a lack of infrastructure, deforestation and decades of mismanagement.
Officers and staff
North Korea’s ruling Labor Party’s official newspaper, Rodang Sinmun, said on Wednesday that government officials, business and industrial workers had “joined the struggle in drought-hit areas.”
“As soon as they arrived, they started pouring water and worked with farmers in order to fight against nature,” the newspaper says. However, the article does not specify the extent of the damage so far, but states that these measures are intended to limit the effects of the current drought and “prevent further damage”.
The official KCNA news agency, citing the country’s meteorological services, said the drought was expected to continue throughout the week. “Light rain is expected on Friday, but they will not help alleviate the drought,” he added.
“Tense” eating condition
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has called for action to improve the “tense” food situation caused by epidemics, hurricanes and international sanctions.
Since the beginning of 2020, North Korea has isolated itself from the rest of the world to protect itself from the plague. Earlier this year it briefly reopened its border with China for freight traffic. Pyongyang said it had not registered any Govt-19 cases on its soil.
After decades of devoting resources dedicated to disaster management and the nuclear program, North Korea suffered a devastating famine in the second half of the 1990s, when its economy and agriculture collapsed. Millions of people died then, and some estimates point to millions. Victims.
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