North’s Kim talks up economic turnaround
Print Edition
NORTH Korean leader Kim Jong-Un said raising living standards was his top priority in a low-key annual New Year’s address yesterday that avoided any explicit reference to the country’s nuclear weapons program.
The clear thrust of the 30-minute televised speech was economic development.
“The Workers Party of Korea gives top priority to the issue of improving people’s living standards among millions of other national tasks,” Kim said. “We must create a turnaround in economic development.”
Kim has issued similar calls in his three previous New Year addresses and, as on those occasions, yesterday’s speech offered little in terms of specific policy for achieving his objectives.
On ties with South Korea, Kim said he was open to talks but warned Seoul against any activity that might threaten a tentative cross-border agreement reached in August to reduce tensions.
In particular, he stressed the provocative dangers inherent in the South’s annual joint military exercises with the US. “If aggressors and provocateurs touch us even slightly, we will not hesitate to respond with a merciless sacred war for justice and national reunification.”
There was no mention of the nuclear arsenal or ballistic missile program that has made North Korea the target of multiple international sanctions over the years, although Kim did stress the need to “develop more varied means of military strikes.”
“The overall tone was quite low-key, and the emphasis was clearly on the economy, rather than political or military issues,” said Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul.
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