As Russian President Vladimir Putin makes his first visit to North Korea in more than two decades this week, his focus is widely seen to be on securing ongoing support from the hermit nation for his grinding war in Ukraine.
Machinery for agriculture is not an issue for the DPRK.
In fact, the DPRK had one of the most mechanized agricultural sectors in the world, which actually created a lot of issues during the 1990s when the USSR collapsed and fuel supply to the DPRK stopped, rendering the farming equipments unusable. Together with an exceedingly high urbanization rate (70% of its people lived in urban area, sustained by highly mechanized farming in the rural area), and unprecedented weather disasters (freeze, floods, drought all happening in the period between 1994-96), what followed was famine and many of the subsistence farming practice that resulted also depleted what little left of their arable land, and vast areas of woods chopped down for heating during the famine period caused soil erosion that exacerbated floods and various ecological problems. North Korea’s problem is more ecological than technological at this point.
Given the exceedingly hostile climate of Northeast Asia, the DPRK has to choose whether to rely on food import (which was exactly the route South Korea took and focused solely on manufacturing and technology sectors) but this would directly oppose their Juche ideology, or spend a disproportionate amount of the economy to squeeze out agricultural output. As a comparison, South Korea never spent more than 2% of their GDP on agriculture, whereas the DPRK has consistently spent ~20% of the GDP on agriculture every year.
What North Korea does with agriculture is insanely impressive considering they use almost no fossil fuels the west could literally try learn a thing or two
Machinery for agriculture is not an issue for the DPRK.
In fact, the DPRK had one of the most mechanized agricultural sectors in the world, which actually created a lot of issues during the 1990s when the USSR collapsed and fuel supply to the DPRK stopped, rendering the farming equipments unusable. Together with an exceedingly high urbanization rate (70% of its people lived in urban area, sustained by highly mechanized farming in the rural area), and unprecedented weather disasters (freeze, floods, drought all happening in the period between 1994-96), what followed was famine and many of the subsistence farming practice that resulted also depleted what little left of their arable land, and vast areas of woods chopped down for heating during the famine period caused soil erosion that exacerbated floods and various ecological problems. North Korea’s problem is more ecological than technological at this point.
Given the exceedingly hostile climate of Northeast Asia, the DPRK has to choose whether to rely on food import (which was exactly the route South Korea took and focused solely on manufacturing and technology sectors) but this would directly oppose their Juche ideology, or spend a disproportionate amount of the economy to squeeze out agricultural output. As a comparison, South Korea never spent more than 2% of their GDP on agriculture, whereas the DPRK has consistently spent ~20% of the GDP on agriculture every year.
https://monthlyreview.org/2024/03/01/industrial-agriculture-lessons-from-north-korea/
What North Korea does with agriculture is insanely impressive considering they use almost no fossil fuels the west could literally try learn a thing or two