SEOUL North Korea's elite bureaucrats embarked on a tour of factories equipped with modern equipment to train their minds toward economic reform, according to the North's state media Sunday.

Senior central and provincial government officials inspected food and other factories completed last month in Pyongyang under the guidance of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il, said the North's central radio station, monitored in Seoul.

The visitors were "impressed by modern facilities" such as computers at the factories, it said.

The weekend tour came after Kim made an eye-opening inspection of China's economic reforms earlier this month. Back home, Kim emphasized the need to improve living standards for North Koreans who have suffered from food and energy shortages.

According to an AFP report, the North Korean economy has collapsed because of mismanagement and the halt of major subsidies following the breakup of the former Soviet Union.

In 1991, in what was seen as a limited opening up, North Korea set up a free trade zone at Rajin-Songbong, near the border with Russia. But it has failed to attract significant foreign investment.

Six years of natural disasters and drought have also left up to two million dead from famine and malnutrition-related disease, according to one U.S. congress report.