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According to state media, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un did not name the United States in an agenda-setting statement issued at the end of a crucial ruling-party meeting on Saturday.
Instead of the policy declarations on diplomacy that have been the emphasis of Kim’s New Year remarks in recent years, he spoke at a Workers’ Party of Korea plenary about food and development.
The impoverished, nuclear-armed country has been enslaved by a self-imposed coronavirus blockade that has wreaked havoc on its economy and caused food shortages.
“Achieving an epoch-making step in resolving challenges relating to people’s daily demands was presented as an essential goal,” the official Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) wrote in a report on Kim’s speech.
According to the South Korean central bank, the epidemic and subsequent border closure caused the North’s economy to shrink at its fastest rate in over two decades in 2020.
Concerns have increased in the country about a full-fledged food crisis, with a UN human rights expert warning in October that the country’s most vulnerable were “at risk of starving.”
Kim, who ascended to power when his father, Kim Jong Il, died just over a decade ago, stated at the party gathering that combatting the pandemic was one of the year’s top priorities.
According to KCNA, he stated that “emergency anti-epidemic measures must be placed as a top national priority and forcefully implemented… without even a little slack, gap, or loophole.”
‘Unstable environment’ is a phrase that is used to describe an environment that is unstable
While the leader made no direct mention of the US or South Korea, he did say Pyongyang would continue to strengthen its military capabilities.
KCNA quoted Kim as saying, “The increasingly unstable military environment on the Korean Peninsula, as well as the world situation.”
The state media dispatch did not elaborate on what this would entail.
Pyongyang is subject to a slew of international restrictions over its nuclear and missile programmes, which have accelerated under Kim.
However, despite the worsening economic condition caused by the pandemic, North Korea has continued to pursue weapons development, according to a UN assessment released in October.
Since the failure of the engagement between Kim and then-US President Donald Trump in 2019, Pyongyang has kept away from talks on its nuclear programme.
South Korea’s diplomatic efforts have also been rebuffed.
