Rice is the chief crop, with wet paddy fields constituting about half of the farmland. Paddies are found along the coasts, in reclaimed tidal areas, and in river valleys. Agricultural self-sufficiency became a major goal of the North Korean government, and mechanized methods were introduced. Livestock plays a minor role in Korean agriculture, especially in the North, where the steep and often barren hills are unsuitable for large-scale grazing. In the South, cattle are used largely as beasts of burden, and although chickens and rabbits are raised, relatively little meat is eaten.
Fish remains the chief source of protein in the Korean diet.
Deep-sea fishing is expanding, and Korean ships now range into the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans. In the 1990s, South Korea's fish catch was the seventh largest in the world. The Korean economy was shattered by the war of 1950 to 1953. Economic development throughout Korea has been uneven, with the South showing significantly greater gains. By the mid-1990s, the per capita gross domestic product of the South was 15 times that of the North.