North Korea is pulling out all the stops to tackle its food problem, including the mobilization of its munitions factories to produce farming machinery for rural communities upon harvest season.

The Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of the North’s ruling Workers Party, said on Tuesday that a ceremony was held on Sunday to mark the delivery of the machinery at Haeju City in South Hwanghae Province, the North’s largest rice-producing area.

The paper said some 55-hundred machines were delivered during the event, including threshers and reapers, stressing that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un directly ordered that the equipment be provided.

The daily also praised the military’s dedication to efforts in support of the agricultural sector among other areas of the people’s economy under Kim’s directive.

In a speech at Sunday’s ceremony, secretary of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party, Ri Pyong-chol, quoted the North Korean leader as saying that the way to protect the country is by addressing the people’s food problem and other livelihood issues.