N. Korean leader calls for efforts to minimize typhoon damage to crops

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has called for efforts to minimize damage to crops by the recent Typhoon Khanun, while mobilizing choppers and aircraft for recovery work in flood-hit regions, state media reported Friday.

Kim visited farms in Anbyon County in the eastern Kangwon Province, where farmlands were flooded due to heavy rains brought by the typhoon that swept through the Korean Peninsula last week, according to the Korean Central News Agency.

The KCNA reported Monday that Kim had carried out a similar inspection in the typhoon-hit region, while berating local officials as being "irresponsible" and "insensitive" over their failure to prevent damage from the typhoon.

During the latest visit, helicopters and light transport aircraft from the country's air force were mobilized for spraying pesticides in flooded fields, as personally ordered by Kim, it added.

The North appears to have mobilized the air force's aircraft for the recovery work to highlight his image as a caring leader amid deepening economic difficulties.

Kim also called on officials to make efforts to attain the goal for this year's grain production "without fail" and cultivate crops in a scientific way so as to reap a good harvest at all farms across the nation, the KCNA said. (Yonhap)