Hyonhee Shin

SEOUL (Reuters – North Korea made substantial progress against drought and rice planting has begun nationwide despite the intensifying efforts of the government to end its uncontrollable coronavirus epidemic, state media reported Wednesday.

After declaring a state emergency, and impositioning a nationwide lockdown in late August, this reclusive country began fighting against the first COVID-19 epidemic.

There were concerns about an outbreak amid an “allout fight” against the drought. This was in a country without vaccines or medical supplies, and that has been under international sanctions due to its weapons programs.

After the local and central government agencies, as well as art groups, mobilized all their resources to increase irrigation and help with rice plantings, progress has been made in the anti-drought effort.

According to KCNA, “All farms that were susceptible to drought were identified without exception and farmers were advised of appropriate watering techniques based on soil moisture and lighting conditions to avoid crop damage.”

The Agriculture Ministry has developed “meticulous farming methods”, which includes maximising efficiency in rice-planting machines and using high quality fertilisers.

Droughts, flooding and other natural hazards have been a problem for North Korea since the spring. Kim Jong Un, the leader of North Korea’s Communist Party has warned that an acrimonious food situation could result from last year’s Typhoons and the Pandemic.

KCNA stated that 93,180 people were experiencing fever symptoms on Tuesday, bringing it to 3,738,810. The death toll for Tuesday was 70, but it did not announce any additional deaths.

After the two-week high in fevers, the state media stated that COVID has been declining.

North Korea never confirms how many individuals have been infected with the virus. However, experts warn that it is possible for the published figures to be inaccurate. This could lead to a difficult assessment of the scale of the crisis.