North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has broken ground on a large greenhouse project and the development of 10,000 apartments, state media reported on Thursday, February 16, highlighting the construction projects amid foreign suspicion of food shortages.
Neighbouring South Korea said on Wednesday, February 15, that a food crisis appeared to be worsening in the North, and the South's DongA Ibo newspaper reported that North Korea had cut rations to its soldiers for the first time in more than two decades.
North Korea has not confirmed any food shortages but its ruling party has scheduled a meeting for late February for what state media said was the "very important and urgent task to establish the correct strategy for the development of agriculture".
The North's state-run KCNA news agency, in its report on the ground-breaking ceremonies in the capital, Pyongyang, cited an official who said the greenhouse construction would be a model for overcoming "present difficulties".
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