North Korea’s recent party plenum made an open show of reshuffling senior military officials, as Kim Jong Un sacked his second-most powerful military leader.

But while the images of Pak Jong Chon hanging his head in shame may have attracted the most attention, a quieter series of personnel changes reinforced major economic goals set forth at the party meeting — in particular the regime’s focus on agriculture as it seeks solutions to the “food problem.”

The final report on the six-day plenum held in late December mentioned “12 major goals” for the new year, and