Marking the United Nations-designated World Food Day on Thursday, North Korea called for self-sufficiency in food as it pledged efforts to enhance food security.

"If (we) put expectations on others, the food problem will never be solved," the Rodong Sinmun, an organ of the North's governing party, said.

The country should pursue an agricultural policy that relies on its own technology and mobilizes people's labor, the newspaper said, highlighting self-sufficiency in feeding its people.

The newspaper attributed the country's food shortage to land degradation caused by civil wars and conflicts in the world and military activities led by "imperialist" countries as well as sharp population growth.

The North is making efforts to embrace advanced agricultural technology and expand investment in the sector, the Rodong Sinmun added, vowing further measures to better feed North Koreans.

"Our republic will continue efforts to put more resources into developing the agricultural sector in order to produce more grains for the people as well as guarantee food security," it said. 

The North's stress on food self-sufficiency comes amid a murky outlook for the outside world's food assistance to the impoverished nation.

Fractured inter-Korean relations have shut out Seoul's rice and other food aid to Pyongyang for years while thorny issues between North Korea and China have cast a cloud over Beijing's continued assistance to the North. (Yonhap)