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KIM JONG-UN: NORTH KOREA TO FOCUS ON ECONOMY IN 2022

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Image source, Reuters
Image caption,
This week's party meetings coincided with Mr Kim being in power for 10 years

North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un has said the faltering economy will be the
national priority this year as the country faces a "great life-and-death
struggle".

He was speaking at the end of a key ruling party meeting, which coincides with
him being in power for 10 years.

A self-imposed coronavirus blockade has left North Korea struggling with food
shortages.

There was no direct mention of the US or South Korea in his speech.

Mr Kim said increasing development and improving people's living standards was
the main task.

He acknowledged the "harsh situation" in 2021 and and set "an important task for
making radical progress in solving the food, clothing and housing problem for
the people", the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.



He said battling the pandemic was one of the main goals for the coming year:
"Emergency epidemic prevention work should be made a top priority in the state
work," he is quoted as saying by KCNA.

 * 10 North Koreans on 10 years of Kim
 * As winter looms, reports of starvation in North Korea

But he also said Pyongyang would continue to strengthen its defence capabilities
because of an increasingly unstable military environment on the Korean
peninsula.

Image source, Reuters

He was speaking on Friday at the end of the 4th Plenary Meeting of the 8th
Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), which began on Monday.

There were reports earlier this year that people in the country were going
hungry, giving rise to concerns as winter approached about a full-blown food
crisis.

The border has been closed since January 2020 to prevent the spread of Covid-19
from China.




ANALYSIS BY SHREYAS REDDY, BBC MONITORING

Following a year in which leader Kim Jong-un repeatedly stressed North Korea's
dire economic condition and food shortages, these challenges were once again in
the spotlight at the ruling Workers' Party's year-end plenum.



Kim's warning of a "great life-or-death struggle" in 2022 echoes last April's
rhetoric urging officials to prepare for another "Arduous March", referencing
North Korea's greatest economic crisis and famine in the 1990s.

While such comparisons overexaggerate the situation, North Korea's economic woes
have indeed been exacerbated by Covid-19-related border closures, international
sanctions and natural disasters.

These have all contributed to what Kim described in June as a "tense" food
situation, and international agencies also warn of growing food insecurity and
starvation.

Kim's emphasis on implementation of the national economic plan, rural
development and advancing "scientific farming" now serves to remind citizens
that their leader is prioritising their needs, while setting expectations for
another year of economic struggles.



Mr Kim's new year speeches have previously included messages to South Korea and
the US, but there were no explicit mentions this time.

"If we consider this report on the plenum as a replacement of Kim Jong-un's
annual New Year's speech, it can be said that it's by far the shortest mention
of inter-Korean relations and foreign policy ever," Cheong Seong-chang, a senior
researcher at Sejong Institute, told NK News.



At the end of last year, North and South Korea, the US, and China agreed in
principle to declare a formal end to the Korean War which ended in an armistice.

But talks have yet to begin because of North Korea's demands, South Korea has
said.



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Division between North Korea and South Korea explained


RELATED TOPICS

 * Kim Jong-un
 * North Korea


MORE ON THIS STORY

 * 10 North Koreans on 10 years of Kim
   
   Published16 December 2021

 * End to Korean War agreed to in principle: S Korea
   
   Published13 December 2021

 * As winter looms, reports of starvation in North Korea
   
   Published5 November 2021

 * Kim Jong-un admits North Korea food concerns
   
   Published17 June 2021





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