This handout photo taken on September 19, 2019 and released on October 24 by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) shows farmer Ri Jong Gi, 50, working in a rice field in North Korea s South Hamgyong province. Finnish Red Cross / AFP
North Korea regularly demands a lot from its citizens, from free labor at building sites to food donations for troops. But the latest order to farmers has them wetting themselves with scornful laughter: Each farmer must donate two liters of their urine daily to make fertilizer, sources in the country told RFA.
North Korea normally imports huge amounts of fertilizer from its largest trading partner China, but the northeast Asian neighbors closed their border and suspended all trade at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in January 2020.