Kim Jong-un tells starving North Koreans to eat less until 2025 as food runs low

Kim Jong-un has told North Koreans they need to tighten their belts and eat less for the next few years despite food shortages already being an “emergency”.

North Korean officials have said that people have to accept the shortages until the country reopens its borders with China in 2025, it was reported.

People are already worried about how they are going to manage through the winter because of the lack of food and there are reports people are starving to death.

The secretive state that is largely cut off from the rest of the world, closed its border with China at the start of 2020 due to Covid with particular fear in North Korea what damage the virus could do with its limited health system.

Closing the border with a main trading partner has been a serious blow to the economy leading to shortages and price rises.

There are already food shortages in North Korea and reports of people starving ( Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)

“Two weeks ago, they told the neighborhood watch unit meeting that our food emergency would continue until 2025. Authorities emphasized that the possibility of reopening customs between North Korea and China before 2025 was very slim," a resident told Radio Free Asia (RFA).

“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."

Along with reports that people have been starving to death, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization is projecting that North Korea is about 860,000 tons short of food - around two months’ consumption.

The UN World Food Program has estimated that about 40% of North Korea’s population is undernourished.

The response from the North Korea regime is for self reliance and a push for people to grow their own crops.

The China border closure has been a big blow for the North Korea economy ( Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)

The Korean resident said that there is considerable resentment towards the authorities and many feel that telling people to keep going until 2025 is like telling them to “starve”.

The government has tried to blame external factors for the lack of food like US and UN sanctions or natural disasters.

The country was affected badly by flooding last year and again there have been floods and droughts in 2021.

At the same time in April, authorities told people were told to prepare for a possibly worse situation than the Arduous March which is the name given for the famine in the mid-1990s that killed millions of Koreans and up to 10% of the population according to some reports.

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