Kim Jong Un has issued a warning over food shortages in North Korea as the dictator urged political officials to improve agricultural production.

Kim told senior cadres that “the people’s food situation is now getting tense”, blaming damage caused by a typhoon last year for shortfalls in grain yields, according to comments reported by North Korean state media on Wednesday. He also warned of a “prolonged emergency anti-epidemic situation”.

The leader’s comments, made as he presided over the ruling Workers’ Party central committee in Pyongyang, was the latest indication of strains on the North Korean economy. For almost 18 months, the country has been battered by pandemic-linked border closures, crippling economic sanctions and a series of typhoons and floods.