North Korea’s Kim hails economic, military successes at meeting | Business and Economy News

The North Korean leader says the isolated state has increased its economic and military power at the opening of the key annual meeting.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un praised his isolated country’s growing economic and military might at the opening of the key annual meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party.

Kim took the occasion to open the meeting to highlight “successes and progress” over the past year, and urged officials to launch “more interesting and confident struggles,” the official China News Agency reported. Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Tuesday.

Kim detailed how the country’s strength had grown in “all political, military, economic and cultural fields” during the “unprecedented arduous and fierce struggle” during the year. over, KCNA said.

“He stressed the need to draw up strategies to launch more vibrant and confident struggles based on the valuable facts that the country has made practical progress after overcoming all odds. difficult.”

The multi-day meeting of the Central Committee of the Labor Party is often used to announce major policies.

This year’s meeting comes after Pyongyang launched a record number of missiles in 2022, including intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), and as The economy is in prolonged difficulty reeling from the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The reunion also took place in the middle of Tensions increased on the Korean peninsula after Seoul dispatched fighter jets and attack helicopters on Monday in response to what they say was an incursion by five North Korean drones into South Korean airspace.

North Korea’s economy shrank for a second straight year in 2021, as some of the world’s harshest pandemic containment measures and international sanctions deepened, according to South Korea’s central bank. deepen the isolation of this reclusive nation.

Despite international sanctions and criticism, Kim, the third generation in the family that rules North Korea, has declared his intention to develop the world’s most powerful nuclear force and described the status of a nuclear state. of his country is “irreversible”.

Kim has repeatedly refused to resume denuclearization talks with the United States and its allies without a commitment from Washington to abandon “hostile policies” over sanctions and nuclear talks. military exercises with neighboring South Korea.

American and South Korean officials have for months warned that North Korea is preparing to conduct a seventh nuclear weapons test.

North Korea test-fired two short-range ballistic missiles last week following joint US-South Korean military exercises.

The launches were the latest in a series of tests in recent weeks that have drawn condemnation from the United States, South Korea and Japan.