Kim Jong Un urges North Korean citizens to eat less till 2025 amid food crisis

The sanctions, the coronavirus outbreak, and last year's typhoons have all aggravated North Korea's food shortfall.

To overcome the food shortage, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has encouraged his people to eat less until 2025. Food costs are rising in North Korea due to a lack of supply, which cannot fulfil the country's demand. "The people's food situation is currently becoming stressful since the agricultural sector failed to meet its grain output plan," Kim stated, blaming a "series of deviations." The sanctions, the coronavirus outbreak, and last year's typhoons have all aggravated North Korea's food shortfall.

Kim has ordered the mobilisation of the military to assist in relief efforts in areas recently impacted by severe rains. "Two weeks earlier, they warned the neighbourhood watch unit meeting that our food situation will last until 2025," a source told Radio Free Asia (RFA). The source further added that authorities stressed that restoring customs between North Korea and China before 2025 was extremely unlikely. The Central Military Commission of the governing Workers' Party met in the eastern province of South Hamgyong to address the dangerous situation.

The summit took place amid fears of a catastrophe in a hermetic economy already plagued by international sanctions to limit its nuclear and military programmes. Kim had urged ruling party leaders to embark on another "Arduous March" of labour and sacrifice in April, comparing the present economic crisis to a period of famine and calamity in the 1990s.
Officials coined the name "Arduous March" to rouse civilians amid a famine that killed up to 3 million North Koreans following the demise of the Soviet Union, which had been a key sponsor of Pyongyang's communist leaders. The time is frequently discussed as a historical event. Still, Kim's apparent parallel to contemporary circumstances came after he stated that Korea is in the midst of its "worst-ever scenario."