North Korea's official newspaper on Thursday urged nationwide efforts to increase grain output, calling it "a crucial matter" in the country's push to achieve key goals unveiled in a rare party meeting early this year.

"We need to realize that food insecurity is a crucial matter related to improving our peoples' lives and economic development, and thoroughly implement this year's plans for crop production," the Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of the ruling Workers' Party, said in an editorial.

The paper called for nationwide efforts to improve the agricultural sector, urging increased investment and support for the rural areas.

It also stressed the importance of providing the necessary equipment and materials to farmers, such as fertilizers and fuel.

The North appears to be seeking ways to increase crop output as it struggles to achieve a "self-reliant" economy amid multiple challenges, including its ongoing antivirus campaign, devastation caused by typhoons last summer and economic woes from global sanctions.

At the eighth congress of the ruling Workers' Party in January, Kim admitted a failure to meet the country's previous five-year development goals and put forward a new five-year plan focusing on self-reliance.

North Korea is known to have chronic food shortages, which appear to have been aggravated in recent years due to extreme weather conditions, global sanctions and the coronavirus pandemic hampering imports. (Yonhap)