The Chosun Central Broadcast relayed that Kim Jong Il, while inspecting the Kilju Farm in North Hamkyung Province on the 14th, said, “At this time, nothing is more important than solving the people’s food ration and diet problem.”
The skepticism has been proposed whether these words were really spoken by Kim Jong Il, because it was also reiterated at the New Year’s Common Editorial.
Regarding this, defector Kim Sung Gil (pseudonym), formerly a journalist for a North Korean propagandistic organization, said, “All propagandistic media in North Korea is subject to the inspection and command of the state. Even if Kim Jong Il did not say such words, the reporting has to strictly follow the order of the Party.”
Kim explained, “If the reporting was under Kim’s name, even if he did not say those words directly, it is no different from him having said them, according to North Korea’s peculiarity.”
Amidst this, the reason for a North Korean media reporting as if Kim was exceptionally concerned about whether or not the citizens are eating can be analyzed as an effort to prevent the citizens’ agitation.
Especially in the mid-90s, Kim Jong Il, who experienced the March of Starvation period which resulted in approximately 2-3 millions deaths, must have felt the threat of the citizens’ disturbance and unsettledness and the threat to the North Korean regime, which will be aggravated in the case of another mass-scale deaths by starvation.
However, the issue is that while urging the resolution of the food issue for the civilians, the method of approach has not changed at all.
Kim Jong Il, while conducting field visits on this day, proposed the “Juche agricultural method” as a means of resolution, saying, “According to the demands of the ‘Juche agricultural method,’ the principle of planting in proper regions at specific times has to be strictly kept by engaging in farming with scientific technology.”
The Juche agricultural method is North Korea’s agricultural technique, which was originally created to be suitable for North Korea’s climate and soil. There are terms such as planting in proper regions at specific times, but there is no clear scientific dimension. Accordingly, the citizens think that “doing whatever the Party orders is the Juche agricultural method.”
In the North Korean ” Chosun (North Korea) Language Unabridged Di,” the Juche agricultural method is explained as “an intensive agricultural method which intensifies by a high power agricultural production by using modern scientific technology as a foundation and is a scientific agricultural method which is farming by scientific technology according to the particularity of North Korean crops’ biology and climate features.”
However, despite the fact that the method is a proven by superiority, “the North Korean food crisis of the last 10 years has not increased at all. This seems as contrary proof of the “Juche agricultural method’s” failure. To be honest, since a long time ago, the “agricultural method” of the Kim Il Sung – Kim Jong Il father and son has been failing and the analysis has been proposed that it has aggravated the food shortage situation by bringing about the destruction of agricultural land and the environment.
Moreover, the “Juche agricultural method” has succeeded in temporarily increasing the production amount in the past, but it has been pointed out that it has only brought about the “desertification of the farmland” and “bare mountains.” Kwon Tae Jin, a senior researcher at the Korea Rural Economic Institute said, “The Juche agricultural method and other artificial factors have played a role in worsening the agricultural foundation.”
Jung Gwang Min, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Strategy, said in a phone conversation with the Daily NK, “The Juche agricultural method is really unrelated to the resolution of the food shortage issue. In order to stir up the international and domestic public opinion that the food situation is severe, the North is stressing it.”
Researcher Jung further pointed out, “The maximum value of North Korea’s food amount which can be provided by the collective farming setup can be estimated at around 4.5 million tons, but every year, it has experienced a shortage. Despite the fact that the lack of food amount could not be filled by the collective farm setup, maintaining this way means that the regime is unfaithful.”
Additionally, he pointed out, “The regime should convert the collective farming setup to a private farming setup, bestowing incentives for citizens to freely sell in the markets. This is such a sensible method already attempted by China, Vietnam and other socialist countries.”
He also emphasized, “It is impossible to resolve the food shortage by converting to a private farming setup in the short-run. Instead, the North should secure its food amount by raising its export industry and increasing its trade and in the long run, open and reform will be the fundamental policy of resolution.”
