Ministry of Unification: Kim Jong Un's On-Site Guidance in Samjiyon City Shows 'Economic Plan' Achievements

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Ji-eun] Regarding Kim Jong-un, General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea, resuming public activities after 35 days through an on-site guidance visit to the Samjiyon City construction site, the government interpreted this as an effort to showcase visible achievements of the first year of the five-year economic development plan.

A Ministry of Unification official stated on the 16th, "Since this year marks the first year of the national five-year economic development plan and the end of the first year is approaching, this is a report to show visible results of the first year."

The official added that since General Secretary Kim has shown special affection for the Samjiyon City construction project from the early days of his tenure, there is also an intention to promote it as an achievement marking the 10th anniversary of his appointment.

The official explained, "Regarding the Samjiyon City project, General Secretary Kim has been overseeing it since 2013, visiting ten times. It can be seen as an example to demonstrate the results of the first year of the national economic development five-year plan and also as an achievement for the 10th anniversary, giving it special significance."

Samjiyon City is also promoted by North Korea as a 'sacred place of revolutionary activities' and a 'model provincial city.' The official explained, "they intend to emphasize the significance of Samjiyon City as a model case of provincial construction and to spread this example."

This is the longest period without public activities by General Secretary Kim in seven years. According to the Ministry of Unification, since the report on his commemorative speech at the opening ceremony of the Defense Development Exhibition on the 12th of last month, there have been no reports related to General Secretary Kim for 34 days until yesterday, marking the second-longest period without public activity reports since 2014, when there was a 39-day gap after Kim took power.

However, the number of public activities itself has increased compared to last year. So far, there have been 72 reports of General Secretary Kim's public activities, which is 23 more than the 49 reports during the same period last year when the frequency of public activity reports decreased due to COVID-19. The official explained, "It is gradually recovering to the levels of 2019 and 2018, before COVID-19."

Among the 72 public activity reports this year, more than half (46) were related to political events such as party meetings and attendance at the party congress. Military-related public activity reports numbered 15, and economic-related reports were 6. Notably, more than half of the economic-related reports were connected to construction projects.

The Ministry of Unification expects that reports related to construction projects with visible achievements will continue. The official said, "From now until the end of the year, it is highly likely that other major construction projects besides Samjiyon City, such as the construction of 10,000 housing units in Pyongyang, which North Korea has emphasized, will also be highlighted and promoted."

Regarding whether there will be plenary meetings or Political Bureau meetings at the end of the year, the official said, "There is no scheduled announcement yet," but added, "Since there have been trends in the past to conclude with year-end plenary meetings or Political Bureau meetings, this will be something to watch closely."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.