Tokyo, 2 March 2023 (dpa/MIA) - North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un has ordered farmers to ramp up food production, state media reported Thursday, amid a food crisis afflicting the country.

State news agency KCNA said Kim called on farmers to focus on upping their grain production and to meet their goals for the year "without fail," at a meeting of the ruling Workers' Party.

Kim said his government saw agricultural development as a matter of "strategic" importance.

"In order to attain the gigantic long-term objectives of rural development, it is necessary to decisively strengthen the Party guidance over the agricultural sector and improve the rural Party work," Kim said.

He said attention should be paid to "overcoming the lopsidedness in the guidance on farming and keeping the balance to be responsible for farming as a whole" as well as increasing the yield at all farms, the KCNA reported.

The four day meeting also covered strengthening the country's financial foundation and improving banking.

The country, which is heavily isolated because of its nuclear weapons programme, has been dependent on food aid from outside for many years due to natural disasters and because of its own mismanagement.

The coronavirus pandemic also hit the country hard.

According to the UN World Food Programme, some 10.7 million people are undernourished in North Korea, which has a population of 25.9 million.