North Korean Premier Kim Tok-hun, center, inspects a farm in South Hwanghae Province, in this photo released by the North's official Korean Central News Agency, June 25. Yonhap

North Korea has held a crisis response meeting to discuss measures to minimize damage that natural disasters could cause to crops and other agricultural products, state media reported Tuesday.

The meeting, which took place virtually Monday, also discussed progress in natural disaster prevention projects for the first half of the year, such as recovery efforts from heavy downpours and droughts to prevent damage to farming, according to the Korean Central News Agency.

The session was chaired by Premier Kim Tok-hun, it said.

In October 2022, the North adopted a crisis response law that outlined the establishment of the national crisis response committee in the wake of heavy flooding and the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The North, which has long struggled with food shortages, designated the scope of the "crisis" as the inflow and spread of malicious diseases, and the occurrence of natural disasters, such as floods, typhoons and earthquakes. (Yonhap)