North Korea’s Kim Jong Un vows to solve economic crisis and bolster military

His remarks at the meeting, carried by the North’s official Rodong Sinmun on Saturday, appeared to replace his New Year's Day address, a banner speech that previously served as a vehicle for major diplomatic and policy announcements.

Unlike previous years, when Kim issued sharp statements that provided clues about Kim’s diplomatic priorities, his remarks at the recent meeting focused on domestic matters — highlighting the challenges that lay ahead as U.S. and South Korean negotiators work to re-engage Kim on nuclear talks.

North Korea continues to develop new missiles and nuclear weapons, experts say. Negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang remain gridlocked since 2019 over North Korea's demands of sanctions relief in exchange for denuclearization, as Pyongyang looks further inward with concerns about covid-19 and economic struggles.

The five-day plenary meeting of the ruling Worker's Party's central committee came as 37-year-old Kim wraps up his first decade in power.

Under a self-imposed covid-19 lockdown, North Korea’s economy suffered its biggest contraction since Kim Jong Un’s formal ascension to power following the death of his father Kim Jong Il. The North’s gross domestic product posted a sharp drop of 4.5 percent in 2020, according to a South Korean government estimate released last week.

At the plenary meeting, Kim stressed the anti-virus campaign as the “no. 1 priority” for the nation. Given North Korea's poor public health capacity, a major coronavirus outbreak would pose a big threat to the country, which leads Kim to maintain a stringent border lockdown at the cost of essential international trades.

The Saturday report carried multiple mentions of “severe hardships” in the country's economy and presented plans for agricultural developments. Kim vowed to “boost agricultural production to completely resolve the country's food problems,” according to the state media report.

“The massive focus on agricultural issues is unprecedented in the new year addresses and January political readouts of the Kim Jong Un-era,” said Chad O’Carroll, CEO of the Korea Risk Group. He said nuclear talks with Washington and other diplomatic engagements will be a low priority for Kim as North Korea is “basically in survival mode for the year ahead.”

At the last plenary meeting in June, Kim ordered his country to be ready for both dialogue and confrontation with the United States under President Biden. The Biden administration has offered to hold talks with North Korea “anywhere, anytime,” to which the Kim regime gave the cold shoulder.

The party plenum report made general references to the ongoing military growth without giving details about new weapons development or space explorations. It said North Korea’s defense industry “greatly demonstrated the progress and modernity of our military muscle.”