A Comparative Assessment of Food Security in South and North Korea Using Food Demand and Supply

Whijin Kim, Rastislav Skalsky, Christian Folberth, Sujong Lee, Dmitry Schepaschenko, Florian Kraxner, Joon Kim, Chang-Gil Kim, Seong-Woo Jeon, Yowhan Son and Woo-Kyun Lee ()
Additional contact information
Whijin Kim: OJEong Resilience Institute (OJERI), Korea University, Seoul 02841, Republic of Korea
Rastislav Skalsky: Agriculture, Forestry, and Ecosystem Services (AFE) Group, Biodiversity and Natural Resources (BNR) Program, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Schlossplatz 1, A-2361 Laxenburg, Austria
Christian Folberth: Agriculture, Forestry, and Ecosystem Services (AFE) Group, Biodiversity and Natural Resources (BNR) Program, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Schlossplatz 1, A-2361 Laxenburg, Austria
Sujong Lee: OJEong Resilience Institute (OJERI), Korea University, Seoul 02841, Republic of Korea
Dmitry Schepaschenko: Agriculture, Forestry, and Ecosystem Services (AFE) Group, Biodiversity and Natural Resources (BNR) Program, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Schlossplatz 1, A-2361 Laxenburg, Austria
Florian Kraxner: Agriculture, Forestry, and Ecosystem Services (AFE) Group, Biodiversity and Natural Resources (BNR) Program, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Schlossplatz 1, A-2361 Laxenburg, Austria
Joon Kim: OJEong Resilience Institute (OJERI), Korea University, Seoul 02841, Republic of Korea
Chang-Gil Kim: Asia Center, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Republic of Korea
Seong-Woo Jeon: Department of Environmental Science and Ecological Engineering, Korea University, Seoul 02841, Republic of Korea
Yowhan Son: Department of Environmental Science and Ecological Engineering, Korea University, Seoul 02841, Republic of Korea
Woo-Kyun Lee: Department of Environmental Science and Ecological Engineering, Korea University, Seoul 02841, Republic of Korea

Land, 2025, vol. 14, issue 9, 1-18

Abstract: South Korea and North Korea share the same environment on the Korean peninsula, but they differ in socio-economic conditions, which leads to differences in crop productivity and status of food security. This study aimed at assessing food security in South Korea and North Korea by analyzing food demand and supply from 1991 to 2020. Food security was assessed by determining whether the food supply met the demand in two countries. South Korea achieved food security due to decreasing consumption, diverse nutrition, and stable rice productivity despite a reduction in cultivated paddy areas. In contrast, North Korea has faced food insecurity for 30 years, caused by a growing population, a lack of dietary diversity, and low crop productivity. To overcome food shortage, the North Korean government needs to focus on improving agricultural productivity through comprehensive reforms of agricultural infrastructures, rather than simply expanding low-productive cultivated areas. Although this study was conducted with limited data for North Korea, it sought to collect and utilize open and publicly accessible data. In the long term, both South Korea and North Korea should prepare for the impacts of climate change, considering agriculture-related sectors such as water and energy.

Keywords: food security; food supply and demand; EPIC model; crop productivity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/14/9/1703/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/14/9/1703/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jlands:v:14:y:2025:i:9:p:1703-:d:1731093

Access Statistics for this article

Land is currently edited by Ms. Carol Ma

More articles in Land from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().