Kim Jong Un calls for “urgent action” against climate change

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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is calling for “urgent action” against climate change to try to deal with an “abnormal” climate that blames the nation’s food shortage.

Kim ordered his officials to curb climate change during a Politburo meeting last Thursday, according to the Central News Agency of Korea.

North Korea has been hit by severe flooding and an ongoing food crisis amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2020, typhoons damaged vital crops. This year, crops have also been damaged by droughts, followed by heavy seasonal rains and floods.

Kim said the “danger” of climate change had increased in recent years and that “disastrous weather” was only getting worse.

“Our country is also vulnerable to its danger,” Kim said.

He ordered his regime officials to adopt an “ambitious plan” calling for river improvement, reforestation for erosion control, dam maintenance, and tidal embankment projects.

Kim also called for North Korea’s flood management infrastructure.

On August 20, 2021, a farmer watered the cabbages on the edge of the mountain in Gangneung, South Korea.
On August 20, 2021, a farmer watered the cabbages on the edge of the mountain in Gangneung, South Korea.
EPA / YONHAP SOUTH SOUTH KOREA

Last month’s heavy rains in northeastern North Korea destroyed or flooded 1,170 homes and forced 5,000 residents to evacuate safely, according to the nation’s state television.

Water from South Hamgyong Province flooded or devastated hundreds of hectares of crop fields and destroyed many bridges.

The images showed houses submerged up to red brick roofs, a bridge carved over muddy water and a swollen river.

City workers will clean up ongoing muddy water on a road in Busan, South Korea, on August 24, 2021.
City workers will clean up ongoing muddy water on a road in Busan, South Korea, on August 24, 2021.
EPA / BUSAN POLICE AGENCY

Amid the ongoing food and climate crisis, North Korea’s economy has been hit by international sanctions and self-imposed blockades of the COVID-19 border.

Elsewhere at last week’s Politburo meeting, Kim rejected international vaccine offers against COVID-19 and insisted he would fight the “our style” pandemic.

“The current dangerous situation of the global pandemic, which maintains spiraling control, demands stricter prevention of the epidemic nationwide,” Kim said.

On August 23, 2021, high waves of an incoming typhoon hit Seogwipo on Jeju Island, South Korea.
On August 23, 2021, high waves of an incoming typhoon hit Seogwipo on Jeju Island, South Korea.
EPA / YONHAP SOUTH SOUTH KOREA

“Tightening the prevention of the epidemic is the most important task that should not be let go for a moment in the current situation.”

Kim has reportedly turned down offers from China’s Sinovac Biotech vaccine and AstraZeneca puncture doses.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un says his “country is also vulnerable” to the chaotic weather conditions affecting crops.KCNA VIA KNS / AFP via Getty Image

With publishing cables

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