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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un declared food shortages in June and asked people for solutions.
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State media reported Monday that the state now owns black swans for slaughter for their meat.
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A United Nations expert said in early October that the country’s food shortage was dangerous.
North Korea has begun breeding black swans for slaughter for their meat, while the country is struggling to address severe food shortages.
The mysterious nation has long struggled to maintain its food supplies, but the crisis has recently worsened after typhoons destroyed crops in the state closed its borders to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
On Monday, state media reported that a new swan breeding plan would help alleviate the crisis.
“Black swan meat is delicious and has medicinal value,” the official government newspaper Rodong Sinmun said he said in an article published Monday.
According to the newspaper, Ri Jong Nam, the party’s chief secretary for South Hamgyong province, opened a black swan breeding center on October 24 on the country’s east coast.
The swan breeding plan was first conceived in early 2019, according to the North Korean monitoring website NK News.
“The solution is expected to address both the failure of large-scale farming to ensure adequate food supply for the entire country as well as recent government restrictions related to COVID-19, which have largely blocked food and other imports since early 2020,” Colin Zwirko, senior analytical correspondent at NK News, wrote about the swan project.
In June, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un declared a “tense” food crisis in September, he called on North Koreans to find solutions to the “food problem,” NK News reported.
As a result of the crisis, the prices of some products across North Korea are expected to rise. In June, a kilo of bananas cost $ 45, NK News reports.
In early October, a United Nations expert said food shortages were uncertain, reports Reuters.
Although swan meat is not available in the United States and much of Europe, it was not always so.
Modern records show that swan meat was an acceptable ingredient in France in the 1300s, England in the Victorian era, and North America in the 18th century.
Read the original article at Business Insider