SEOUL - State media reported Thursday that amid warnings of a looming food crisis, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered infrastructure improvements and farmland expansion to boost food production.

At the adjournment of the expanded seventh plenary session of the ruling Labor Party's powerful Central Committee on Wednesday, Kim ordered the modernization of irrigation systems, the construction of modern agricultural equipment, and the expansion of farmland.

On Sunday, discussion began on the "urgent" task of strengthening agriculture.

South Korea has warned of a growing food crisis in its remote north, including a recent spike in starvation deaths in some areas, partly due to a so-called failed policy by the new grain companies that limits private dealings with the crop.

North Korea's economy has been hit by floods and typhoons, sanctions on its nuclear and missile programs, and a sharp drop in trade with China due to border closures and lockdowns due to COVID-19.

South Korea's Rural Development Agency estimated that agricultural production in the north fell nearly 4 percent last year from a year earlier, citing heavy summer rains and other economic conditions.

Kim outlined concrete plans and tasks to build "prosperous and highly civilized rural socialist communities with advanced technology and modern civilization," the official KCNA news agency reported.

He ordered the reconstruction of the irrigation system to deal with climate change, the production of efficient agricultural machinery to modernize production, and the clearing of tidal lands to expand agricultural lands, KCNA reported.

The lack of adequate agricultural infrastructure, machinery, and supplies, including fertilizer and fuel, has made North Korea more vulnerable to natural disasters, experts say.

Since the 1980s, the plateau has also attempted to expand farmland through tidal land reclamation along the west coast, but previous efforts have failed in part due to poor engineering and maintenance. 

Land reclamation projects have been relatively more successful under Kim, but with slow progress in converting coastal mudflats into fertile farmland, they did little to alleviate food shortages, Project American 38 North said in late 2021.

Lim Eul-Chul, a professor of North Korean studies at Kyungnam University in South Korea, said: "The state media report said they set new goals and action plans, but I don't see anything new as all of the elements, including irrigation and reclamation, have already been raised before.

Professor Yang Moo-jin of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul added that the report made no new recommendations or possible changes to the grain policy that South Korea had attributed to the food shortages.

According to KCNA, Kim ordered all party units to "get their working efficiency verified" and emphasized the need for stricter discipline in carrying out the economic plan. Kim also issued a warning against "practices of weakening the organizational and executive power of the cabinet."

Without going into further detail, KCNA reported that the Central Committee also discussed ways to enhance the nation's financial management.