Kim Jong-un's bizarre food strategy: Orders North Koreans to eat 'delicious' black swans

Kim Jong Un, North Korea's weight-conscious ruler, is said to have devised an unusual solution to the country's food shortage: forcing his starving population to eat decorative black swans.

While building industrial-scale breeding factories, the Hermit Kingdom has been promoting the attractive birds as a protein-rich superfood. 

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At the Kwangpho Duck Farm on the country's east coast, Ri Jong Nam, top secretary of the governing Workers' Party of Korea in the North Korean province of South Hamgyong, established a centre for the cultivation of black swans.

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The event, which was shown live on state television, was part of a larger drive to encourage the eating of black swans in North Korea, which is grappling with a self-described "food crisis."

The governing party's Rodong Sinmun newspaper described black swan meat as "delicious" and "medicinal value," claiming it will "actively contribute to improving people's lives." 

North Korea is also warning its starving citizens that they will have to eat fewer meals for the next several years.

Pyongyang, which closed the Sino-Korea border early last year owing to the coronavirus outbreak, claimed there's a little possibility it'll reopen until 2025.

According to Radio Free Asia, this condition, which includes trade restrictions, puts a major strain on the country's 25 million inhabitants, who are already starving to death due to soaring food costs. 

According to the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization, North Korea would be short 860,000 tonnes of food this year, or about two months' worth of consumption. 

(With inputs from agencies)