North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will open for the first time in eight months on Wednesday a key ruling meeting of the ruling party to tackle issues of “crucial importance” – as the Hermit Kingdom struggles with a sanctions-damaged economy, concerns about national security and devastating floods, according to reports.
The Labor Party’s powerful politburo will discuss issues of “crucial importance in developing the Korean Revolution and increasing the party’s fighting efficiency,” according to the official KCNA news agency, Reuters reported.
Last year, Kim promised to make a ‘frontal breakthrough’ in the country’s campaign to build a self-reliant economy amid punitive sanctions aimed at curbing its nuclear program.
Kim, whose reported health scare raised questions about follow-up earlier this year, is facing widespread difficulties, both at home and abroad, after floods devastated farmland to give another blow to the economy with virus-hit.
The flooding affected the Yongbyon nuclear facility, with water reaching pump houses for red reactors, the 38 North website reported based on an analysis of satellite images, Bloomberg News reported.
His nuclear talks with President Trump have stalled without him gaining any sanctions, and the US and South Korea have begun joint military exercises this week, according to the outlet.
“The unusual follow-up to holiday gatherings in recent months – and perhaps even the lack of much North Korean activity on foreign policy, such as arms testing – suggest that quarantine measures and the global pandemic have serious consequences for the economy and the living standards of the people, ”Rachel Minyoung Lee, a former U.S. government analyst specializing in the rogue regime, told Bloomberg.
Pyongyang has said the country has no confirmed cases of the coronavirus – a claim questioned by U.S. and Japanese officials.
Kim must restore the abused economy for the 75th anniversary of the ruling Workers’ Party on October 10, Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, told Bloomberg.
“Kim may reshuffle his bureaucrats in the meeting in a bid to speed up the restoration of damage caused by the recent flood and COVID-19 by October 10,” Yang said. “The meeting is likely to focus on issues of internal politics, especially economics.”
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