North Korean leader Kim Jong Un gathered his senior advisors Monday to discuss his economic policies ahead of a key meeting of the North’s ruling party.
State-owned Korean Central News Agency released a statement and said Kim laid out a plan to usher in “tangible change in stabilizing” the state economy and people’s living conditions. The statement did not provide any specifics of Kim Jong Un’s plans.
The ruling Workers’ Party powerful Central Committee is set to meet in early June to review overall state affairs for the first half of 2021 and to determine what measures to enact to solve pending economic issues.
According to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency, an unnamed official in the South’s Unification Ministry says Monday’s meeting marked the first time the North has held such a consultative meeting under the current leader.
North Korea’s economy has been crippled by decades of mismanagement, U.S.-led economic sanctions over the North’s nuclear weapons program, and strict border controls it imposed at the start of the COVID-19 global pandemic. The secretive regime has yet to confirm any COVID-19 cases.
