Kim Jong Un prioritizes food crisis over nuclear talks in 2022
Kim Jong Un urged North Korea to focus on easing food shortages and containing COVID-19, in a downbeat New Year’s policy assessment that suggested nuclear talks with the U.S. were a low priority for the coming months.
Much of the published remarks focused on agriculture, with the state facing one of its most dire food shortages since Kim took power a decade ago. The situation has been made more worse by severe weather and his decision to shut borders because of the pandemic, effectively slamming the brakes on legal trade and the black market flow of foodstuffs from China.
Kim laid out his 2022 agenda in remarks to ruling party cadres that were published by state media Saturday and appeared to take the place of his traditional New Year’s Day address. During the five-day Workers’ Party meeting in Pyongyang, the North Korean leader also called for strengthening the military’s power because of an unstable environment.
“The country’s economic projects are still under difficult conditions,” Kim said, according to the official Korean Central News Agency, a rare admission of the strains his government was facing.
Read more: https://www.leadertelegram.com/news/world/kim-jong-un-prioritizes-food-crisis-over-nuclear-talks-in-2022/article_90ad28e8-93ec-5545-9771-a52525d0860b.html
(Eau Claire Leader-Telegram)
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