But state media did not mention any specific remarks towards Washington and Seoul when reporting on Kim’s speech marking the 76th anniversary of the founding of the ruling Workers’ Party.
North Korea said on Monday that leader Kim Jong Un urged the authorities to overcome the “grave situation” facing the country and make stronger efforts to improve the food and living conditions of its people.
But state media did not mention any specific remarks towards Washington and Seoul when reporting on Kim’s speech marking the 76th anniversary of the founding of the ruling Workers’ Party.
Nuclear talks between Washington and Pyongyang have stalled for more than two years over disagreements over the release of US-led sanctions against North Korea and the exchange of the North’s denuclearization steps.
Giving a conditional peace offer to Seoul, the country has intensified its missile testing activity in recent weeks, reviving a pattern of pressuring South Korea to get what it wants from the United States.
Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency said during his speech on Sunday, Kim said his party was determined to achieve the economic goals set during the party’s congress in January, when he acknowledged that his previous economic plans were successful. and issued new development plans for the next. five years.
The agency said Kim reaffirmed the party’s determination to efficiently complete the five-year plan to “boost the national economy and solve the problems of people’s food, clothing and housing”. KCNA said Kim analyzed the “unprecedented difficulties” facing the North and called for the party’s single-minded unity to develop the state’s economy in the face of a “grave situation”. Analysts say Kim is facing perhaps the toughest moment of his nearly decade in power. He failed to find much-needed sanctions relief at his summits with then-President Donald Trump in 2018 and 2019, then the coronavirus pandemic led to North Korea closing its borders and decades of mismanagement over Kim’s nuclear weapons program. And the sanctions were followed by a further economic blow.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said last week some of its COVID-19 medical supplies had arrived at a port in North Korea, a sign that the North was in the world’s strictest pandemic frontier to receive outside help. was closing one.
Kim has so far rejected proposals from the Biden administration to restart talks without preconditions, saying Washington should first abandon its “hostile policy”, a term used by North Chief sanctions and US-South Korea military exercises.
But in recent weeks the North has also restored communication lines with the South, saying it could take further steps to improve bilateral ties if Seoul abandons its “dual attitude” and “hostile approach”. Is. Analysts say North Korea is using the South’s desire for inter-Korean engagement to drive a wedge between Washington and Seoul and pressure the South to seek concessions from the Biden administration on its behalf.
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