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This personal letter was published after New Year’s Eve in an isolated country. Fireworks were held in Pyongyang on the occasion, with performances by singers and dancers in Kim Il Sung Square, despite a coronavirus pandemic that, according to the regime, has not reached the country so far.
Kim Jong Un used to publish a televised New Year’s speech on January 1, in which analysts sought to see what North Korea’s future policy would look like.
Still, there was no such speech last year, it was superseded by Kim Jong Uno’s speech at a party meeting the previous year.
This year, many predicted that Kim Jong Un will return to television this year as the ruling party’s first congress in five years approaches.
State media have indicated that the event will take place in early January, but the exact date has not yet been announced.
“I sincerely wish all the families in the country greater happiness and loved ones, good health,” Kim Jong Un said in a letter published by the Korea Central News Agency (KCNA).
“In the new year and again, I will work hard to bring a new era before, when the ideals and wishes of our people come true,” added the leader. “I would like to thank the people who have firmly believed and supported our Party, even in these difficult times.”
Kim Jong Un likely spelled economic hardship due to international sanctions and tough coronavirus prevention measures.
South Korea noted that the North Korean leader greeted the country’s people with a letter for the first time since 1995, when Kim Jong Il, Kim Jong Un’s father, did so.
Kim Jong Un also visited the Kumsusan Solar Palace on the outskirts of Pyongyang at midnight to pay tribute to his grandfather Kim Il Sung, the founder of North Korea, and his successor, Kim Jong Il, who were buried there.
The party’s congress, during which a new economic and political plan is to be announced, will be the first such event in the past five years and only the eighth in North Korean history.
The 2016 convention was the first in North Korea in 36 years.
This year’s convention is expected to take place before January 20, when Joe Biden will be sworn in as president of the United States.
Pyongyang’s relations with the United States have stalled since North Korea’s relations with the United States stalled following the collapse of the 2019 meeting between US President Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un in Hanoi. At the same time, the leaders failed to find a common language that Pyongyang, which lacked money, could reject in exchange for easing sanctions.
With the failure of Pyongyang’s negotiations with the Trump administration to ease sanctions, the future remains uncertain. The future president of the United States has called Kim Jong Un a “bandit” and Pyongyang has called him a “mad dog.”
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