{"id":14673,"date":"2012-12-31T18:01:50","date_gmt":"2012-12-31T18:01:50","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2012-12-31T18:01:50","modified_gmt":"2012-12-31T18:01:50","slug":"North-Korean-leader-vows--radical--economic-shift","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/?p=14673","title":{"rendered":"North Korean leader vows “radical” economic shift"},"content":{"rendered":"

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un called for a “radical turnabout” in the impoverished country’s economy in a rare New Year’s address that also appeared to offer an olive branch to South Korea.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Kim’s speech, broadcast on state television, was the first of its kind for 19 years<\/strong>, since the death of his grandfather and the North’s founding president Kim Il-Sung.<\/p>\n

Kim’s father, Kim Jong-Il, almost never managed any direct verbal address to his people.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The year 2013 will be one of “great creations and changes in which a radical turnabout will be effected,” Kim said<\/strong>, adding that “the building of an economic giant is the most important task” facing the country.<\/p>\n

Praising the success of the North’s space scientists in launching a long-range rocket last month, Kim said a similar national effort was now required on the economic front.<\/p>\n

“The entire party, the whole country and all the people should wage an all-out struggle this year to effect a turnaround in building an economic giant and improving the people’s standard of living,” he said.<\/p>\n

But he offered no specific policy directives for how this might be achieved by the isolated state<\/strong>, which is already under multiple UN sanctions and relies on its sole major ally China for 70 per cent of its foreign trade.<\/p>\n

When Kim Jong-Il died in December 2011 he left a country in dire economic straits<\/strong> — the result of a “military first” policy that fed an ambitious missile and nuclear programme at the expense of a malnourished population.<\/p>\n

Despite a rise in staple food output, daily life for millions of Koreans is an ongoing struggle with under-nutrition, according to a recent World Food Program report.<\/p>\n

The address will be closely scrutinized in South Korea, which has just elected its first woman president, the conservative Park Geun-Hye, who has signaled a desire for greater engagement with Pyongyang.<\/p>\n

Kim’s tone was conciliatory as he urged a scaling down of tensions between the two Koreas who remain technically at war.<\/p>\n

“An important issue in putting an end to the division of the country and achieving its reunification is to remove confrontation between the North and the South,” Kim said.<\/p>\n

“The past records of inter-Korean relations show that confrontation between fellow countrymen leads to nothing but war,” he added.<\/p>\n

The South’s president-elect Park has distanced herself from outgoing President Lee Myung-Bak’s hardline policy towards Pyongyang and has even held out the prospect of a summit with Kim in the future.<\/strong><\/p>\n

But in her first policy statement following her election victory last month, Park made it clear she still viewed Pyongyang as a serious threat and would put the South’s national security before any trust-building program.<\/p>\n

In his address Kim made it clear that building the economy did not mean a complete shift away from his father’s “military first” policy.<\/p>\n

“The military might of a country represents its national strength. Only when it builds up its military might in every way can it develop into a thriving country,” he said.<\/p>\n

In his first year as leader, Kim focused on consolidating his power base with a series of high-profile personnel changes<\/strong>, notably within the military elite, while at the same time pursuing Kim Jong-Il’s missile program.<\/p>\n

His New Year address came as the UN Security Council is still considering how to punish Pyongyang for its recent rocket launch, which most of the world saw as a disguised ballistic missile test.<\/p>\n

The speech lauded the launch as a historic national achievement and stressed the need to develop more “sophisticated military hardware”.<\/p>\n

But he made no mention of the North’s nuclear weapons program, despite growing speculation that Pyongyang is preparing to conduct a nuclear test following the rocket success.<\/p>\n

Yang Moo-Jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, said the general tone of Kim’s speech was positive.<\/strong><\/p>\n

“It might signal limited economic reforms this year and also sends a message to South Korea’s incoming president about a desire for improved cross-border relations,” Yang said.<\/p>\n

Source AFP<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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