Leader Kim Jong Un issued a stern warning at North Korea’s first ruling party congress in five years, saying that the development plan fell far short of its goals and that the party would seek a “new path” to make a “big leap” .
Kim soon dropped her New Year’s Day address. According to official remarks, Kim said on Tuesday that the party’s previous five-year development plan, which ended last year, missed both targets “internal and external challenges”, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.
The center, Kim Jong Un, participates in a ruling party congress in Pyongyang on 5 January
Source: Korean Central News Agency via AP Pictures
“The goals we set were very low in almost all areas,” Kim said, according to KCNA, a rare admission of mistake by planners.
Commentary by state media did not mention any plans by Kim to revive stalled talks with the US to halt its nuclear weapons program to ease sanctions that would curtail America’s state nuclear economy. is. A gathering of 5,000 delegates and party officials is being watched for clues as to how Kim will approach the incoming administration of US President-Elect Joe Zenden.
Koh Yu-hawon, president of a government-funded Korea Institute for National Unification think tank in Seoul, said North Korea would likely hint at its US and South Korea strategy in subsequent congressional meetings.
“North Korea may have calculated that the sanctions regime would last a little longer,” Koh said. “It can do during North Korea’s sanctions, experiencing problems internally to speed up economic recovery.”
One of the few world leaders yet to congratulate Kim – or even acknowledge – the defeat of Biden President Donald Trump, who held three meetings with the North Korean leader to bring decades of US foreign policy Dispensed with. There was no mention of presidential-election in early accounts of the event.
Biden’s camp has indicated more room for talks, and President-elect, Antony Blinken, has chosen to run for president. Supported a negotiated settlement with North Korea that first freezes and then returns its nuclear program in exchange for an award.
State media also did not clarify what would be Kim’s “big leap forward”, in addition, Congress would lay the groundwork for reforming other standards. The term provoked Maotse Tung’s “Great Leap Forward” in neighboring China, a disastrous attempt to encroach extensively with the industrial powerhouses of the West.
At the meeting, where a leadership change is expected, Kim’s battered economy was prevented from moving further by natural disasters and by her decision to close borders due to coronovirus. According to a projection by Fitch Solutions, GDP likely dropped to 8.5% in 2020, when Kim left it in 2011 with a pledge to improve people’s living standards.
Kovid Crash
North Korea’s GDP grew at perhaps the fastest pace in decades this year
Source: Statistics Korea, Fitch Solutions
Kim has few options to change finances but UN Security Council The report states that it has used illegal ship-to-ship transfers of contraband and cyber crimes to make money.
“He’s looking in the dark for a solution,” said Joe Dong-ho, a professor of North Korean economic studies at Sewa’s Iwa Woman’s University. Joe said that it is very unlikely that Kim could open up like China and Vietnam because he would first make nuclear concessions to the US – the gatekeeper to the sanctions.
Images in state media showed Kim’s sister, Kim Yo Jong seated a row behind the leader, sparking recent speculation among observers that he broke his power after leading a controversial pressure campaign against South Korea I went.
Kim Jong Un also indicated that the cadres’ purse may be running. Last year, he dressed officers for a lack of goals most prominently in July, when he was out on a “reckless budget” for a showcase hospital construction project in Pyongyang that fell behind schedule.
The project appears to have been affected by a shortage of construction materials, while facing hardship to improve living conditions while living under restrictions.
Kim Jong Un to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the North’s ruling Workers’ Party in Pyongyang on 10 October.
Photographer: Jung Yeon-jay / AFP / Getty Images
Kim’s most recent public speech at a military parade in October – a rare display of emotion, showing the leader crying as he talked about the country’s economic struggles under international sanctions. It also included several new weapons designed to attack the US and allied forces, including what is believed to be the world’s largest road-mobile intercontinental ballistic missile.
“I doubt he will discuss the new Biden administration in detail if he even mentions it explicitly,” said Rachel Minyong Lee, an independent political analyst who worked for the US government in areas related to North Korea Were. “Kim probably wants to maintain flexibility as the new US administration formulates its North Korea policy,” he said.
– assisted by Jeong-ho Lee, Sam Kim and Stella Ko
(Updates with Kim comments in the third paragraph.)
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