North Korean leader Kim Jong-un vowed to “transform” the nation with a drive to build public health facilities, leisure complexes and industrial plants over a third of the country, state media said yesterday.
Attending a ceremony for a construction project in Unnyul County in South Hwanghae Province, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Kim announced projects to be built in 20 regions.
“We are now standing on the starting line of our gigantic struggle for another year, aimed at transforming the regions,” Kim said. “Nearly one-third of the cities and counties across the country will have been transformed.”
Photo: KCNA via REUTERS.
Kim also hailed soldiers mobilized at construction sites as “creators of the people’s wellbeing.”
Those remarks could suggest “an effort to shift significant portions of conventional military manpower into construction while focusing on [the country’s] nuclear capabilities,” said Ahn Chan-il, a researcher originally from North Korea.
Images released by state media showed Kim shoveling soil alongside other officials at a ceremony attended by an excited crowd clapping and waving North Korean flags.
Photos showed a large, dramatic celebratory explosion that state media described as “thrilling.”
A landmark congress of North Korea’s ruling Workers Party — its first in five years — is expected to take place in the coming weeks, although no date has been confirmed.
The nuclear-armed country is under multiple sets of sanctions over its weapons programs, and has long struggled with its moribund state-managed economy and chronic food shortages.
North Korea has long been criticized for prioritizing the military and its banned weapons programs over adequately providing for its people.
Pyongyang has also moved to revive inbound tourism to earn much-needed hard cash, developing lavish coastal and mountain resorts.
Analysts have said a regional development policy pushed by Kim two years ago is tacit acknowledgement of the major disparity in conditions between the showcase capital, Pyongyang, and the rest of the country.
The leader has also openly expressed anger at the slow pace of some projects, chastising lazy officials and even firing his vice premier in public for alleged incompetence last week.
US President Donald Trump on Wednesday threatened to take action against the EU if it moves forward with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s proposal to make Canada the bloc’s first associate member. “If they do that, if I think it’s at all a hostile act; I will put very serious tariffs or stop trading with Europe on many things,” Trump told reporters en route to an event in North Carolina, calling the proposal “laughable.” “If it’s a good intention, that’s fine. If it’s a bad intention, we’ll put very heavy tariffs on Europe,” he said. Von der Leyen made the proposal
ON THE MOVE: Trump unexpectedly cut short a trip to return to the White House, while the State Department warned Americans to avoid travel to the Middle East The US on Saturday warned that hostilities between Saudi Arabia and Iran-backed Houthis could “escalate rapidly” after a missile attack targeted Riyadh for the first time since the Yemen conflict resumed. US President Donald Trump on Saturday cut short a weekend at Camp David, a secluded presidential complex in rural Maryland, to return unexpectedly to the White House. The White House gave no explanation for the early return, which comes as a new threshold was crossed in the conflict between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis, who control a large part of Yemen and are fighting government forces backed by a coalition led
The US military came close to boarding a Chinese vessel in the Middle East earlier this year based on a flawed intelligence report prepared with the help of artificial intelligence (AI), CNN said on Friday. US intelligence indicated the ship was carrying nuclear weapons-related components, leading US forces to prepare to intercept it, the broadcaster reported, citing four anonymous sources familiar with the incident. However, the operation was called off after officials determined that an AI chatbot used by an analyst had misidentified the material the ship was carrying. The report was “entirely false,” but “almost started a war,” CNN quoted one source
World leaders gather in New York this week for the UN General Assembly, bracing for US President Donald Trump’s return to the rostrum for a second year running, with talks centering on the widening conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine and the risks of artificial intelligence (AI). Nearly 130 heads of state meet with the post-World War II order under strain and with the UN itself struggling to remain relevant and weathering attacks from Trump, who has slashed the US’ contributions and withdrawn from dozens of UN bodies. Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), who last addressed the diplomatic jamboree via video
RSS