North Korea orders soldiers to plant, harvest crops

Hundreds of thousands of North Korean troops are mobilizing to help plant and harvest crops. The country s military is changing some of its munitions factories to produce tractors and threshing machines, while also converting some airfields into greenhouses. Soldiers are being asked to extend their service by three years and spend them on farms.

The directives came from North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Un, who has called for his military to become a driving force in increasing food production.

It is both an economic imperative and a geopolitical calculation for an isolated nation facing food shortages. Sanctions imposed since 2016 over the North's nuclear program have devastated its exports and ability to earn hard currency. Then the outbreak and the border closures squeezed what little trade remained with China.

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