Kim calls for decisive turn in economy

PYONGYANG－The ruling party of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea emphasized the need to straighten the economic work system at a plenary meeting of the central committee, official Korean Central News Agency said on Monday.

At the second-day session of the 5th Plenary Meeting of the 7th Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, or WPK, on Sunday, the DPRK's top leader Kim Jong-un analyzed the problems arising in the overall building of the state, including state management and economic construction.

Kim put forward in detail the orientation of the struggle for bringing about a decisive turn in the development of the country's economy and people's standards of living, the report said.

Kim "presented the tasks for urgently correcting the grave situation in the major industrial sectors of the national economy", the report added.

He also emphasized the need "to take positive and offensive measures for fully ensuring the sovereignty and security of the country as required by the present situation", KCNA said.

KCNA said the plenary meeting "goes on", suggesting it will be a multiple-day meeting.

The plenary meeting came a week after a meeting of the WPK's Central Military Commission that discussed "important organizational and political measures and military steps to bolster" the armed forces.

'New path'

Kim, who has said Pyongyang would pursue a "new path" if Washington persists with sanctions and pressure, is expected to announce major policy changes during his New Year's address on Wednesday.

The KCNA report did not describe any decisions made at the meeting or mention any specific remarks by Kim about the United States.

Pyongyang's official Rodong Sinmun newspaper published photos of Kim, wearing a white dress shirt and horn-rimmed glasses, speaking from a podium as hundreds of government and military officials jotted down his comments.

Lee Sang-min, a spokesman for the Republic of Korea's Unification Ministry, said Seoul is closely watching the DPRK meeting, but he didn't speculate on what Kim's call for active and offensive security measures could have meant.

Cheong Seong-chang, a senior analyst at ROK's private Sejong Institute, said it was the first time under Kim's rule that a plenary meeting of the party's Central Committee continued for more than a day.

Kim has met Trump three times in two years of high-stakes summitry, but the diplomacy has progressed little beyond their vague aspirational goal of a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula. At their last meeting in June, they agreed to resume talks. A working-level meeting in Sweden in October broke down with the DPRK blaming its US counterparts for maintaining an "old stance and attitude".

Xinhua - AP