North Korea: Kim Jong-un puts economy at the center of his New Year’s speech

Published on : 01/01/2022 – 15:19

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un put the economy at the heart of his speech at the end of an important meeting of the ruling party, reported on Saturday 1^er January state media.

Unlike in previous years, when his New Year’s address focused on foreign policy, the leader made economic development and the food situation his priorities at a plenary meeting of the Workers’ Party.

The North Korean regime, which is under international sanctions for its banned military programs, suffers from food shortages.

The pressure on the North Korean economy has been increased by the orderly border closures to combat the pandemic.

In his speech on Friday, Kim Jong-un acknowledged that the country experienced a “difficult situation” in 2021 and outlined plans for next year, the official North Korean agency (KCNA) reported.

He described the challenges of 2022 as “a great battle between life and death” and called for “an important mission to make radical progress in solving the problems of food, clothing and housing”, according to KCNA.

North Korea 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 to fight the epidemic must be placed at the top of national priorities and be vigorously implemented,” he said, according to KCNA.

Experts believe that the consequences of closing borders to prevent the spread of Covid-19 are at the root of the importance it places on the economy.

Food shortages

“The pandemic continues to limit its (policy on the) diplomatic level, to decimate its economy and to make border control its main security problem,” Leif-Eric Easley, professor at AFP, told AFP. Seoul Ewha Womans University.

In his remarks, Kim Jong-un did not directly mention the United States and South Korea.

He stressed, however, that Pyongyang would continue to strengthen its military capabilities keeping in mind “the military environment on the Korean Peninsula” and the international situation.

These include ensuring loyalty and obedience in the army, improving militias and “producing powerful equipment that correspond to modern warfare,” said the leader without giving further details.

“(Kim Jong-un) might realize that revealing sophisticated military development plans as people suffer from food shortages and difficult (living) conditions outside Pyongyang might not be such a good idea this year,” Chad O’Carroll tweeted from NK News.

“North Korea is more or less in survival mode for 2022 – and doesn’t really know what to do (…) on foreign policy right now.”

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.

In 2021, North Korea said it had successfully tested a new type of submarine-launched ballistic missile, long-range cruise missile, train-launched weapon, and claimed to be a hypersonic warhead. .

Negotiations with the United States have stalled since the failure, in 2019, of the meeting between Kim Jon-un and Donald Trump, then President of the United States.

Under President Joe Biden, the United States has repeatedly declared its readiness to meet with North Korean officials. But Pyongyang has so far rejected the offer.

With AFP