This photo taken from the Chinese border city of Dandong on July 22, 2021, shows a North Korean soldier near the fields in Uiju county. (Kyodo)

       BEIJING (Kyodo) -- North Korea has been facing damage from sultry weather and drought, state-run media reported Monday, with leader Kim Jong Un trying to tackle the country's worst food crisis in over 10 years.

       The precipitation as of mid-July stands at 21.2 millimeters, around a quarter of the average and the second-lowest level in the records of meteorological observation after 1981, the official Korean Central News Agency said.

       In some areas in the nation, the maximum daytime temperature has reached 35 C on average, drying out thousands of hectares of rice and corn fields and impeding the growth of rice as well as withering corn leaves, according to KCNA.

       At a ruling party meeting in June, Kim said the food situation in North Korea is "getting tense," as the country's agricultural sector was devastated by powerful typhoons and flooding last year.

       Pyongyang said earlier this year in a report to the United Nations that it has suffered from its worst food crisis in more than a decade, sparking fears that its citizens have encountered serious difficulties in obtaining daily essentials.

       But North Korea appears not to have imported food products recently from China, which is known as its closest and most influential ally in economic terms.

       North Korea claims no infection cases have been found in the country, but it has cut off land traffic to and from China since early last year to prevent the intrusion of the novel coronavirus, first detected in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019.

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