North Korea has drawn up precautionary measures to minimize damage from the monsoon season with a focus on crop protection, state media said Wednesday, amid concerns that heavy rains could worsen the North's food situation.
Officials have swiftly carried out measures to prevent damage from downpours, as well as natural disasters stemming from climate change based on what it called a "scientific" analysis of such phenomena, the North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.
The report comes two days after the North's main newspaper, the Rodong Sinmun, officially announced the beginning of the annual monsoon season and called for "maximum efforts for thorough preparation."
The KCNA emphasized crop protection as an area of top priority, saying that full-fledged efforts are under way to inspect reservoirs and irrigation facilities, while harvesting reapable crops and protecting young crops.
It said efforts to protect various power facilities from heavy rains, typhoons and lightning are under way. It also said that measures are being discussed to prevent casualties from rainy season accidents and heatstroke at key construction sites like the housing project in the Pyongyang district of Hwasong.
Additional pumps and piping have also been installed at mines prone to flooding while authorities have stepped up inspections of railways and other relevant facilities, according to the KCNA.
Downpours could deal a heavy blow to the North, which is known to be vulnerable to flooding due to poor irrigation and deforestation. It is also feared they could worsen the regime's chronic food shortage that has deepened amid self-imposed COVID-19 restrictions and global sanctions on its nuclear and missile programs.
Such circumstances have prompted the North to declare increased grain production as one of its key goals for the year.
Source: Yonhap News Agency