National Level ‘Homeland
Meeting’ to Convene in Early May
The
new North Korean leadership will convene ‘Homeland Meeting’ in Pyongyang in
early May to come up with measures to tackle the food shortage problem that has
recently been getting worse. Three to
four officials from relevant offices in each county and more officials from the
cities are converging on the capital city to attend the meeting. Officials from city parties, county parties
and political agencies, not to mention the Ministries and the central agencies,
are summoned, making the scale of the conference close to that of the Party
Representatives’ Meeting on April 11th. It is reported that the ‘Homeland Meeting’
will discuss ways to cultivate mountainous areas and abandoned lands for
securing farmland and other measures to increase food production.
Added
to the agenda is the farming labor shortage issue. Farms are suffering from a labor shortage due
to the significant death toll among the farmers in breadbasket regions
including Hwanghae Province and the high rate of absenteeism among the
surviving farmers who are busy seeking grassroots and wild greens to eat in the
mountains. One Central Party official
said that the Supreme Chairman of National Defense Committee Kim Jong Un
“instructed to convene the meeting in order to find fundamental solutions to
increase food production. It reflects
the Party’s determination to resolve the food shortage problem that is
increasingly worsening. North Korean
people are gradually warming towards the party
leadership, hoping for some real changes to
happen this time.”
