North Korea highlights RFID for livestock in Party paper

June 9 (UPI) -- A North Korean newspaper is highlighting the benefits of radio-frequency identification, or RFID, in the management of livestock following reports of African swine fever in the country.

Korean Workers' Party paper Rodong Sinmun stated Sunday other countries use RFID tags or microchips to monitor farm animals, and that the practice improves productivity, compared with "traditional methods."

The old methods waste food for livestock and new technology could better manage livestock breeding cycles, the North Korean paper said.

RFID uses electromagnetic fields to identify and track tags attached to animals or objects. Tags can be identified hundreds of meters from an RFID reader, or be embedded in an object or animal.

The Rodong said RFID tags could store information about an animal, including its identification number, date of birth, sex and information about the animal's mother. RFID is a real-time tracking and information, the North Korean paper stated.

Pyongyang continues to promote technology and improvements to farming methods to a domestic audience at a time when the country's crops could have been heavily affected by drought.

State media said Sunday the country has found a way to use underground saltwater for salt production.

"Areas of our West Sea are abundant in underground brine," North Korea stated. "We must take great interest in the business of salt production, because it has great economic significance."

South Korean news service Tongil News reported North Korea has previously produced salt, using underground salt water as a resource.

The policy began in August 2010, and mass production started in March 2012, according to the report.