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North Korea’s Kim Lambasts Officials For Economic ‘Defeatism’

Oluwaseye Ogunsanya February 12, 2021 21


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State News Agency KCNA reported on Friday that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has accused top officials of “self-protection and defeatism”, largely blaming them for the country’s economic plight.

At a meeting of top cadres, Kim had “sharply criticised” officials responsible for laying out plans for various sectors’ growth this year, he said they did not reflect the “idea and policy” announced at January’s Party Congress.

The Congress which is the first of its kind in five years and only the eighth in North Korea’s history, set out a new economic plan.

But it also disclosed the extent of the isolated country’s financial woes, with Kim repeatedly apologising for mistakes in economic management and saying the last five years had been the “worst” time.

Concluding the four-day meeting, Kim was quoted on Friday as lambasting officials for their lack of “innovative viewpoint and clear tactics” in solving those issues.

In one example of poor performance, he singled out agriculture officials who had set grain production targets “irrespective of present situation where farming condition is unfavourable and the state is unable to supply enough farming materials”, in an unusually candid account.

Other sectors were lambasted for “absurdly low” production quotas, with officials accused of “trying to find a breather and make pretence of doing work.”

North Korea is under different international sanctions due to its banned nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes, which have made rapid progress under Kim.

A summit between Kim and then-US president Donald Trump in Hanoi in February 2019 broke down over sanctions relief and what Pyongyang would be willing to give up in return.

Nuclear talks have been on hold ever since, while North Korea showed off several new missiles at military parades in October and last month, when Kim vowed to strengthen his nuclear arsenal.

Pyongyang is also under increasing financial pressure as the coronavirus pandemic and floods last summer put its flagging economy under yet more strain.

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