When it comes to agriculture, North Korea has never been a global or regional leader, not even in the communist bloc, and the country has been in a chronic state of food insecurity since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Even so, the current food situation three years into the pandemic appears worse than it ever has been under Kim Jong Un, and last week’s four-day party meeting focused on agriculture underlined state efforts to bring what official media has termed the “food problem” under control.

During the meeting, leader Kim Jong Un called