North Koreans harvest crops from their arable land in North Hwanghae Province, Oct. 7, 2022. Yonhap

The size of North Korea's rice paddies decreased 1.1 percent in 2023 from a year earlier, data showed Monday, amid lingering concerns over the North's chronic food shortages.

The North's rice paddies totaled 533,591 hectares last year, contracting from 539,679 hectares tallied in 2022, according to Statistics Korea.

The estimate is based on satellite images taken over the April-September period of 2023.

The figure is around 75 percent of the 707,872 hectares of rice paddies in South Korea.

South Hwanghae Province accounted for 26.3 percent of North Korea's total, trailed by North and South Pyongan provinces with 19.1 percent and 14.1 percent, respectively. (Yonhap)