(Seoul) North Korean leader Kim Jong-un put the economy at the heart of his speech after an important ruling party meeting, state media reported on Saturday.
Unlike in previous years, when his New Year’s address focused on his diplomatic policy, the leader made economic development and the food situation his priority, at a plenary meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party.
The North Korean regime, which faces multiple rounds of international sanctions for its banned military programs, suffers from food shortages and has struggled to feed its people ever since.
The pressure on the North Korean economy has been increased by the orderly border closures to combat the pandemic.
“It is important to take a decisive step in solving the problems related to the daily needs of the people,” Kim Yong Un said in his speech, according to the official North Korean news agency KCNA.
The North experienced its biggest economic recession in two decades in 2020, according to South Korea’s central bank.
The leader admitted in June that his country was facing a “tense food situation”.
In October, a United Nations human rights expert warned that the most vulnerable were “threatened with famine”.
The leader, who took over from his father Kim Jong-il ten years ago, told his party’s meeting that tackling the pandemic was one of the main goals for the coming year.
“Emergency measures against the epidemic must be placed at the top of national priorities and be vigorously implemented … without the slightest slack, deviation or loophole.”
In his remarks, he did not directly mention neither the United States nor South Korea, merely stating that Pyongyang would continue to strengthen its military capabilities.
“The increasingly unstable military environment on the Korean peninsula and the international situation require the strengthening of national defense capabilities,” said Kim Jong-un, quoted by KCNA who did not give more details on what that means.
The deterioration of the economic situation linked to the pandemic did not prevent Pyongyang from developing its weapons program, according to a United Nations report published in October.
Negotiations with the United States have stalled since the failure in 2019 of the meeting between Kim Jon Un and US President Donald Trump, then President of the United States.