In this photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency, Sept. 15, North Korean Premier Kim Tok-hun makes field inspection visit to a rural area. Yonhap

North Korea's official newspaper on Thursday called for all-out efforts to speed up harvests of crops to minimize loss from natural disasters and maximize grain production amid worries about chronic food shortages.

"All means at our disposable should be mobilized for harvesting and threshing grains in the autumn," the Rodong Sinmun, the organ of the North's ruling party, said. "All sectors, units and party organizations should also ramp up efforts to support the farming community."

"Carrying out autumn harvests with our whole mind is not just work to resolve food problems for our people but also a powerful political business," the paper said.

The paper also stressed the importance of accurate weather forecasting and improvements in farming techniques needed to protect crops from flooding and other natural disasters.

North Korea has called for better water management and speedy harvests of crops as it wants to prevent the repeat of damage to its farming sector by typhoons and resultant flooding last year, which apparently reduced food production and worsened its chronic food shortages.

State media recently reported on damage from heavy downpours and such weather conditions as large-sized hailstones, which fell in some regions.

In June, leader Kim Jong-un said his country's "food situation is now getting tense as the agricultural sector failed to fulfill its grain production plan" due to damage from typhoons last year. (Yonhap)