Kim Jong-un admits North Korea is experiencing its “worst days” and economic troubles

Seoul – North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, inaugurated the congress of North Korea’s only party, the Workers, reported state propaganda today, admitted the country was experiencing economic setbacks and avoided any direct mention of the United States at a time when the disarmament dialogue is at a standstill.

“The safest and fastest way to meet the many challenges we now face is to do our best to strengthen our own strength and our ability to be self-reliant.”Kim said in his speech, which was delivered Tuesday, but has been fully reproduced today by the KCNA agency and Rodong newspaper.

That was Kim’s suggestion after admitting that the results of the five-year plan approved at the previous 2016 congress were “well below expectations in most areas” and that the country is experiencing its “worst days”.

A year full of difficulties

While speaking negatively is an unusual gesture for the regime, it is already the second time the North Korean leader admits the country is in trouble, hit by the passage of three typhoons in 2020 and the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. .

On the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Workers’ Party, celebrated on October 10, Kim tearfully acknowledged the shortcomings facing citizens of a country already affected by international sanctions. and that it also closed its borders tightly at the start of the pandemic.

This has kept foreign investment and trade to a minimum (some reports already mention a shortage of commodities in Pyongyang’s supermarkets) and appears to be pushing the hermetic country into its worst crisis since the terrible famine in the late 1990s. the previous century.

The supreme leader spoke at the opening session of the eighth Congress of the Workers’ Party, in which a new five-year plan will be presented, about the existence of “external and internal” obstacles in the economic development of the country, without further detail.

Likewise, he spoke of proposing new strategies to achieve “national reunification and promotion of foreign relations” without specifying anything else.

Silence around Biden

As many expected, Kim did not directly mention the United States in his speech, a common feature of this political rally, the country’s most important, but aimed at designing internal policies and restructuring the regime’s organizational chart.

In any case, and given the impending change of government in Washington, the event is expected to shed clues as to the regime’s weapons program and its diplomatic plans, where it has been silent for the past few months to the point of not having any. makes mention of it. not even Joe Biden’s election victory in the US presidential election.

After three summits between Kim Jong-un and still-President Donald Trump, denuclearization talks have come to a standstill after the failure of the Hanoi summit in 2019, where Washington found Pyongyang’s offer of disarmament inadequate and refused to lift sanctions.

A date surrounded by secrecy

For reasons unknown, the opaque regime this time kept the exact date of the congress secret, only indicating that it would be “early January”.

According to state media, about 5,000 people, including deputies and party leaders, and about 2,000 guests attend the council, more than the 2016 figures.

The published photos, in turn, showed Kim opening the convention at Pyongyang’s House of Culture on April 25 to a packed house with no one wearing a mask.

The country has told the World Health Organization (WHO) that it has tested nearly 12,500 people and has yet to detect a single case of COVID-19.

Still, its prevention protocols remain a mystery as North Korean media regularly shows civilians outside of masks or disinfection teams dressed in protective suits.

A promotion for Kim Yo-Jong?

In addition to speculation as to whether the regime will resume weapons testing once Biden takes office to try to force a restart of negotiations or choose a different route, this congress is also raising the possibility that the leader’s sister, Kim Yo -Young, climb up in the group.

Kim Yo-jong, a member of the political bureau who has gained even more fame this year by becoming spokesman for the regime on many occasions, has so far been appointed as presidium for this congress.

Satellite images indicate that the regime is in turn preparing a parade to end the event, the closing date of which is unknown.

If it took four days, as in 2016, the nomination would end on Kim Jong-un’s birthday, which would be a gesture to bolster his figure and loyalty to the party in times of hardship.