Hyonhee Shin and Soohyang Choi

SEOUL (Reuters). – North Korea’s coronavirus virus outbreak could worsen its food crisis this year. A nationwide lockdown would prevent ongoing anti-drought efforts as well as the mobilization of labour.

Thursday’s confirmation by the North isolated of its first COVID-19 pandemic since more than 2 years ago was a sign that the nation is in a “gravest emergency”. They also declared a national lockdown.

As the nation intensifies its efforts to fight drought, the outbreak was reported. Kim Jong Un spoke out warning that there will be a tight food supply due to last year’s typhoons as well as the pandemic.

According to state media, factory workers as well office workers and officials were dispatched last week in order to improve agricultural facilities and ensure water supplies across the country.

Droughts are a long-standing threat to North Korea’s economy.

An analyst said the global pandemic has already reduced trade and international food donation. A COVID-19-related crisis, which is brewing in an agricultural country that relies heavily on labor and lacks industrial and medical infrastructure could worsen food shortages.

Lim Eul-chul is a South Korean professor who studies North Korean history at Kyungnam University.

He said, “But now farming activity can be reduced and distribution of fertilizers, raw materials, and equipment would become more difficult.”

U.N. assistance agencies, as well as most relief groups, have left the country following prolonged border closings. It is not possible to determine the severity of the situation.

Ji Seong-ho is a South Korean lawmaker, who fled the North in 2006. He has advocated for North Koreans’ rights and said that the virus can spread quickly due to the absence of an effective medical system.

“The COVID virus could strike the current farming season severely, and food insecurity might become very serious this year or next,” he said to a session of parliament.

International sanctions against the North for its weapons programs restrict wide swathes of trade. The country also sealed its borders in 2020 to stop the spread of the virus.

An initial reopening in border trade this year gave hope. However, it was stopped in April due to COVID infections in China. China recently put restrictions in place in large cities like Shanghai. Satellite imagery shows goods that have been kept in quarantine at both land and sea port facilities for many weeks or even months.

Director of the Sejong Institute’s North Korea Studies Centre in South Korea Cheong Seongchang said that the North may impose some limited measures – not unlike China’s sweeping moves – to continue some activity. This refers to Kim’s orders to maintain lockdowns at the county and city levels.

Cheong stated that North Korea could face an eventual food crisis as a result of the inability to move interregionally.

North Korea’s weather bureau has issued warnings about prolonged dry spells for this month. On Thursday, the state media also reported that there was an “all out fight against drought” in all of North Korea.

In March, UN representatives urged Pyongyang not to close its borders to food and aid workers. They claimed its increasing isolation could have led to starvation.

According to the World Food Program, more than 40 percent of North America’s population were considered undernourished before the outbreak.