North Korean leader Kim Jong-il called for more production of fertilizer, Pyongyang's state media said Saturday, in an apparent effort to help alleviate chronic food shortages in the communist country.

Fertilizer is reportedly in short supply in North Korea, which experts say could further worsen the food situation in the country.

"The most important task … is to focus efforts on keeping the production of fertilizers going at a high rate and send greater quantity of fertilizers to the socialist cooperative fields," Kim said during an inspection tour of a chemical complex, according to the North's Korean Central News Agency.

South Korea had been one of the largest donors of food and fertilizer to North Korea, but it has stopped shipments since 2008 when conservative President Lee Myung-bak took office with a get-tough policy toward its communist neighbor.

Seoul cut almost all ties with North Korea after the sinking of a South Korean warship blamed on the North, and the North's shelling of a South Korean border island last year.

The U.N. World Food Program is appealing for the provision of 430,000 tons of food to North Korea to feed 6 million needy people there.

Some critics claim Pyongyang has been exaggerating its food shortages so that it can hoard food in preparation for its distribution on the centennial birth of its late leader, Kim Il-sung, the father of current leader, Kim Jong-il, which falls on April 15 next year. (Yonhap)