The North Korean regime has recently decided to hand over about 3,300 sq.m of land to each farmer and change the crop-sharing ratio between the state and individual farmers from 7:3 to 6:4 in a bid to increase food production.

The regime decided to distribute the land of collective farms to each household and let them grow crops on about 20 percent of the plot for their own consumption, a source said.

Farmers can also keep 40 percent of the crops grown on the remaining 80 percent of the land while giving the remainder to the state, the source added.

The regime also reportedly pledged to provide farmers with seeds, fertilizer and farm implements.

Since 2012, the regime has allowed collective farms to pay back loans for land, irrigation, farming supplies and fertilizer once they fulfill their production quota and dispose of the rest as they wish. But farmers have complained that their portion is too meager.

"Everybody can buy the equivalent size of land for 300 yuan (about W50,000 in South Korean currency), where they can build a house or do farming," the source said.

Cho Bong-hyun of the IBK Economic Research Institute in Seoul said the regime has apparently realized that the previous policy was doomed to failure.

