In the past, North Korea had a comparatively high level of industrialisation, which had augmented agricultural production through the use of irrigation, artificial fertilisers and pesticides, electrification and mechanisation. Only 30 percent of the population was engaged in agriculture. Now with the breakdown of industry, the country is reverting to primitive methods of production. According to South Korean intelligence reports, the Pyongyang regime is sending up to two million people from the cities, where many factories are idle, back to the countryside to provide manual labour. In terms of nutrient content, the availability in 1998 was only about 18 percent of the 1989 level.
Energy is a critical factor in the country's irrigation system.
Water has to be pumped into the main canals and reservoirs. But the availability of fuel has been declining. Moreover, the conditions of canals and pumping stations have been deteriorating because of natural calamities, while the pumping stations and the feeding steel pipes have suffered from a lack of spare parts and poor maintenance. The Mission found that water pumping hours, and hence, the supply of irrigation water to crop fields have seriously declined. The highly mechanised DPR Korea agriculture faces a serious constraint as about four-fifths of the motorised farm machinery and equipment is out of use due to obsolescence and lack of spare parts and fuel.