The map above shows where and how much rice North Korea produces in each region. From 2019-2023 North Korea produced an average of 1,482,000 tons of rice per year.
And according to reddit, 1 ton of rice is enough to feed 1,550 people for a day. Or 4.24 people for an entire year (if they only ate rice).
So if we take the 1,482,000 tons of rice per year and multiply by 4.24 we only get 6,293,424 people, yet North Korea has a population of over 26 million.
Of course, even in North Korea people eat food other than rice.
North Korea also produces 2,330,000 tons of corn, 209,000 tons of soybeans and 65,000 tons of wheat each year.
Contrast that with South Korea:
Who produce 3,720,000 tons of rice, 114,000 tons of soybeans, 89,000 tons of corn and 29,000 tons of wheat.
So South Korea which has 51 million people (double North Korea) produces 2.5x more rice, but less of most other staples. However, because South Korea is so much richer than the North it can afford to import food.
According to a 2023 Liden University Study, you’d need 2.4 North Koreas to produce enough food to become fully self-sufficient in food production, but South Korea would need to replicate itself 5x times over to produce enough food.
Shows how much both countries rely on agricultural productivity of the rest of the world such as the US, Canada, China, Australia, Brazil, Vietnam, and Thailand.
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