North Korea's Kim Opens Key Meeting on Agriculture

(FILES) This undated file picture released from North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on December 7, 2021 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attending the eighth conference of military educationists of the Korean People’s Army at the April 25 House of Culture in Pyongyang. (Photo by KCNA VIA KNS / AFP)
(FILES) This undated file picture released from North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on December 7, 2021 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attending the eighth conference of military educationists of the Korean People’s Army at the April 25 House of Culture in Pyongyang. (Photo by KCNA VIA KNS / AFP)
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North Korea's Kim Opens Key Meeting on Agriculture

(FILES) This undated file picture released from North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on December 7, 2021 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attending the eighth conference of military educationists of the Korean People’s Army at the April 25 House of Culture in Pyongyang. (Photo by KCNA VIA KNS / AFP)
(FILES) This undated file picture released from North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on December 7, 2021 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attending the eighth conference of military educationists of the Korean People’s Army at the April 25 House of Culture in Pyongyang. (Photo by KCNA VIA KNS / AFP)

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has opened a key party meeting to discuss agricultural development, state media said Monday, following a report of "grave" food shortages in the isolated country.

Normally such meetings are convened only once or twice a year, but the plenary comes just two months after a previous one, which also focused on agricultural issues, AFP said.

The unusual frequency of the meetings focused on agriculture has fueled speculation that there may be serious food shortages in North Korea now.

Kim chaired the opening on Sunday of a plenary meeting of top ruling party officials to "analyze and review... the program for the rural revolution in the new era, and decide on the immediate important tasks and the urgent tasks," the official Korean Central News Agency reported.

The participants "unanimously approved the agenda items and went into discussion" on the topic, the KCNA said without giving further details.

South Korea's unification ministry says there have been reports of starvation deaths in the North.

"We judge the food shortages there to be grave," ministry spokesman Koo Byoung-sam said last week, adding Pyongyang appeared to have requested food aid from the World Food Program.

North Korea monitoring site 38 North said it judged the current food shortages in the country to be the worst in decades.

The Pyongyang regime was being forced to deal with "a complex humanitarian emergency that has food insecurity at its core", it said in a January 2023 assessment.

An analysis of rice and corn prices globally and in North Korea show "significant" price divergence since early 2021 -- meaning food is far more expensive in the North -- "signaling a breakdown" in supply, it added.

- Official denial -
But a recent commentary carried by North Korea's main state-run newspaper Rodong Sinmun said the country should continue to stick to the "self-sufficient economy" as part of its fight against "the imperialists".

"The imperialists, under the cloak of the so-called 'collaboration' and 'aid', are clamoring as if some countries in economic difficulties could not tide over crises without their support."

But such support are efforts to "make the countries their sources of raw materials and market after completely demolishing the barrier of their national economy", Rodong said.

Nuclear-armed North Korea, which is under multiple sets of sanctions over its weapons programs, has long struggled to feed itself.

It is highly vulnerable to natural disasters including floods and drought due to a chronic lack of infrastructure, deforestation and decades of state mismanagement.

This has been compounded by a years-long self-imposed border closure since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, which has only recently been eased to allow some trade with neighboring China.

The country has periodically been hit by famines, one of which in the 1990s killed hundreds of thousands of people -- some estimates range into millions.



Iran FM Araghchi Arrives in Oman Ahead of Nuclear Talks with US

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrives ahead of negotiations with the US, in Muscat, Oman, April 25, 2025. Iranian Foreign Ministry/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via Reuters
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrives ahead of negotiations with the US, in Muscat, Oman, April 25, 2025. Iranian Foreign Ministry/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via Reuters
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Iran FM Araghchi Arrives in Oman Ahead of Nuclear Talks with US

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrives ahead of negotiations with the US, in Muscat, Oman, April 25, 2025. Iranian Foreign Ministry/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via Reuters
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrives ahead of negotiations with the US, in Muscat, Oman, April 25, 2025. Iranian Foreign Ministry/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via Reuters

Iran's top diplomat Abbas Araghchi arrived in Oman on Friday ahead of fresh nuclear talks with the United States, after both sides said progress had been made in previous rounds.

Foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei posted on X that "Araghchi and his accompanying delegation arrived in Muscat for the third round of Iran-US talks".

Iran's Mehr news agency released a brief video showing the foreign minister disembarking from an Iranian government plane in Muscat.

Baqaei said Araghchi would be leading the delegation of diplomats and technical experts in the indirect discussions with the US side.

US President Donald Trump's special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, will represent the United States in the talks.

The latest round will include expert-level talks on Iran's nuclear program, with Michael Anton, who serves as the State Department's head of policy planning, leading the technical discussions on the US side, the department said.

Iran's Tasnim news agency reported that deputy foreign ministers Kazem Gharibabadi and Majid Takht-Ravanchi will lead the Iranian technical team.

Baqaei wrote on X that Iran's delegation is "resolved to secure our nation's legitimate and lawful right to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes while taking reasonable steps to demonstrate that our program is entirely peaceful".

"Termination of unlawful and inhumane sanctions in an objective and speedy manner is a priority that we seek to achieve," he added.

According to Baqaei, the dialogue will again be mediated by Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi on Saturday morning.

The meeting follows two earlier rounds of Omani-mediated negotiations in Muscat and Rome starting on April 12.

- Calling for 'goodwill' -

Since his return to office in January, Trump has reimposed sweeping sanctions under his policy of "maximum pressure" against Tehran.

In March, he sent a letter to Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei calling for talks but warning of possible military action if they failed to produce a deal.

Western countries including the United States have long accused Iran of seeking to acquire nuclear weapons -- an allegation Tehran has consistently denied, insisting that its program is for peaceful civilian purposes.

Baqaei earlier Friday said "progress in the negotiations requires the demonstration of goodwill, seriousness, and realism by the other side".

Iran will treat Saturday's talks seriously, Araghchi said in a recent interview, "and if the other party also enters seriously, there is potential for progress".

In 2018, Trump withdrew the United States from a nuclear deal signed three years earlier between Tehran and major world powers. The agreement eased sanctions on Iran in return for curbs on its nuclear program.

After Trump's pullout, Tehran complied with the agreement for a year before scaling back its compliance.

Iran currently enriches uranium up to 60 percent, far above the 3.67 percent limit in the 2015 deal but still below the 90 percent threshold required for weapons-grade material.

In an interview published by Time Magazine on Friday, Trump said the United States will "lead the pack" in attacking Iran if nuclear talks do not lead to a new deal.

But he expressed hope that an agreement could be reached and said he would be willing to meet Khamenei.