Former premier back in job as Kim eyes growth
Source: Agencies |
April 2, 2013, Tuesday
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NORTH Korea appointed a new prime minister yesterday, choosing a former premier who was sacked from the post in 2007 in a reported backlash against his pursuit of economic reforms.
Pak Pong Ju, 74, was sworn in at the annual meeting of the Supreme People's Assembly, North Korea's parliament, the official Korean Central News Agency said. He replaces Choe Yong Rim.
Pak, believed to be in his 70s, is a key ally of Jang Song Thaek, the uncle of young ruler Kim Jong Un, and worked for Jang's wife, Kim's aunt Kyong Hui, the last remaining personal link to the state's revolutionary founder, Kim Il Sung, grandfather of the current leader.
Pak is a career technocrat who took the post of premier in 2003 to implement an ambitious economic reform policy that allowed autonomy in farm production and pricing liberalization, introduced in 2002. He was removed in 2007 when it became clear the steps aimed at boosting the impoverished state's economy, gripped by devastating famine in the 1990s, were not producing desired results.
The reemergence of Pak Pong Ju as premier is seen by analysts as a clear signal that leader Kim Jong Un is moving to back up recent statements vowing a focus on strengthened economic development.
The UN says two-thirds of the country's 24 million people face regular food shortages. The appointment signals that Pak will play a key role in economic policymaking again. Yesterday's parliamentary session also adopted a special ordinance formalizing the country's position as a nuclear weapons state.
The ordinance on "consolidating the position of nuclear weapons state for self-defence" was adopted unanimously, along with two laws on space development and the establishment of a state space development bureau, KCNA said.
On Sunday, Kim and top party officials adopted a declaration calling nuclear weapons "the nation's life" and an important component of its defense, an asset that wouldn't be traded even for "billions of dollars."
Pyongyang cites the US military presence in South Korea as a main reason behind its drive to build missiles and atomic weapons. The US has stationed tens of thousands of troops in South Korea since the Korean War ended with a truce, not a peace treaty, in 1953.
Pak Pong Ju, 74, was sworn in at the annual meeting of the Supreme People's Assembly, North Korea's parliament, the official Korean Central News Agency said. He replaces Choe Yong Rim.
Pak, believed to be in his 70s, is a key ally of Jang Song Thaek, the uncle of young ruler Kim Jong Un, and worked for Jang's wife, Kim's aunt Kyong Hui, the last remaining personal link to the state's revolutionary founder, Kim Il Sung, grandfather of the current leader.
Pak is a career technocrat who took the post of premier in 2003 to implement an ambitious economic reform policy that allowed autonomy in farm production and pricing liberalization, introduced in 2002. He was removed in 2007 when it became clear the steps aimed at boosting the impoverished state's economy, gripped by devastating famine in the 1990s, were not producing desired results.
The reemergence of Pak Pong Ju as premier is seen by analysts as a clear signal that leader Kim Jong Un is moving to back up recent statements vowing a focus on strengthened economic development.
The UN says two-thirds of the country's 24 million people face regular food shortages. The appointment signals that Pak will play a key role in economic policymaking again. Yesterday's parliamentary session also adopted a special ordinance formalizing the country's position as a nuclear weapons state.
The ordinance on "consolidating the position of nuclear weapons state for self-defence" was adopted unanimously, along with two laws on space development and the establishment of a state space development bureau, KCNA said.
On Sunday, Kim and top party officials adopted a declaration calling nuclear weapons "the nation's life" and an important component of its defense, an asset that wouldn't be traded even for "billions of dollars."
Pyongyang cites the US military presence in South Korea as a main reason behind its drive to build missiles and atomic weapons. The US has stationed tens of thousands of troops in South Korea since the Korean War ended with a truce, not a peace treaty, in 1953.
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