North Korea’s push for dry-field rice reflects drought concerns

SEOUL: North Korea is stepping up cultivation of dry-field rice, which relies on irrigation or rain rather than flooded paddies, state media reported, in what experts said was a sign of worsening drought.

The nuclear-armed country is under multiple sets of sanctions over its weapons programmes and has long struggled with a moribund state-managed economy and chronic food shortages.

Elizabeth Salmon, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea, said in February that food shortages remain a key humanitarian concern in the country.

“The work for cultivating dry-field rice is being hastened in different parts of the DPRK,” Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Tuesday.

The report came after KCNA’s April warning that the country was experiencing an “unusual” and “severe” drought and was taking steps to protect crops.

North Korea’s state television last month reported severe drought conditions in various parts of South Hwanghae Province in western North Korea, according to South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency.

Experts said the latest report suggested drought conditions remain severe in the hermetic, impoverished country.

Kim Yong-hyun, a professor at Dongguk University, said dry-field rice is used as an alternative crop when water supplies are low.

“If North Korea is expanding the cultivation of dry-field rice, it may indicate concerns about food production later this year,” he told AFP.

Park Won-gon, a professor of North Korean studies at Ewha Womans University, agreed the report suggested drought conditions “have not improved” in North Korea.

“North Korea annually faces a food shortfall of roughly 500,000 to one million tonnes,” he added.