Seoul - North Korea's main goals for 2022 will be jump starting economic development and improving people's lives as it faces a "great life-and-death struggle," Kim Jong Un said in a speech on Friday at the end of the 4th Plenary Meeting of the 8th Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), which began on Monday.
The meeting coincided with the 10-year anniversary of Kim assuming leadership of North Korea after the death of his father in 2011.
Kim capped off his 10th year in power with a speech that made more mention of tractor factories and school uniforms than nuclear weapons or the United States, according to summaries by state media on Saturday. Previous speeches around the New Year were major policy announcements, including launching significant diplomatic engagements with South Korea and the United States.
The domestic focus of the speech underscored the economic problems Kim faces at home, where self-imposed anti-pandemic border lockdowns have left North Korea more isolated than ever before, with international aid organisations warning of possible food shortages and a humanitarian crisis.
Kim spent most of his speech detailing domestic issues from an ambitious plan for rural development to people's diets, school uniforms and the need to crack down on "non-socialist practices."
Saturday's state media report cited the development of "one ultra-modern weapon system after another" as a major achievement of the past year and said Kim called for bolstering the national defence to face an unstable international situation. A tractor factory he discussed in the speech was likely used to build launch vehicles for missiles, foreign analysts have said, and North Korea is believed to have expanded its arsenal despite the lockdowns.
The reports of Kim's speech did not mention the United States' call for denuclearisation talks, or South Korea's push for a declaration to formally end the 1950-1953 Korean War to restart those negotiations.
North Korea has previously said it is open to diplomacy, but that the American overtures appear hollow while "hostile acts" such as military drills and sanctions continue.
Source - Reuters, BBC