North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is alleged to have directed his people to consume less food until the country’s border with China reopens in 2025.
According to RFA, North Koreans are already facing food shortages, but officials have encouraged citizens to tighten their belts for at least another three years.
Individuals, however, have already expressed concern that scarcity would make it impossible to survive the winter, let alone several years.
In order to prevent the spread of coronavirus, North Korea closed its border with China in January 2020.
But the move has had a serious impact on the nation’s economy with prices of everyday goods rising sharply as demand outstripped supply.
Speaking about the new government guidance, a resident of the city Sinuiju, who wished to remain anonymous, said that people have been warned that the chances of re-opening the border with China before 2025 were slim.
They added: ‘The food situation right now is already clearly an emergency, and the people are struggling with shortages. When the authorities tell them that they need to conserve and consume less food until 2025… they can do nothing but feel great despair.’
Despite the challenges that the North Korean people are now through, their leader, Kim Jong Un, has continued to promote the concept of self-sufficiency this year.
In preparation of shortages, the Central Committee directed the population to begin cultivating their own crops in July.
According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, North Korea would be short about 860,000 tons of food this year.
The Sinuiju resident said that contempt is growing among the people. ‘They say that telling us to endure hardship until 2025 is the same as telling us to starve to death,’ the resident said.
A second source claimed that the North Korean government is attempting to spin the food shortages as a result of their effective Covid-19 strategy, which they say has worked well.