When North Korea broke a three-week silence on leader Kim Jong Un's public activity on Saturday, it offered no clue where he has been during a period of intense global speculation about his health and whereabouts, or why he was hidden from the public for so long.
SEOUL - When North Korea broke a three-week silence on leader Kim Jong Un’s public activity on Saturday, it offered no clue where he has been during a period of intense global speculation about his health and whereabouts, or why he was hidden from the public for so long.
While much remains a mystery about Kim’s condition, the abrupt re-emergence of the relaxed and smiling leader was clear choreography of key messages from the secretive government: Kim is the supreme leader in full control of a drive to improve the impoverished country’s food security and economy, amid tough international sanctions and the threat of the new coronavirus.
North Korea is under sanctions over its nuclear-weapons and missile programmes, leaving the country chronically struggling with food shortages, aggravated by bad weather and mismanagement. “Agricultural production is a top priority, which has a direct impact on the lives of the people,” Koh Yu-hwan, the president of the Korea Institute for National Unification, a South Korean government think-tank, said.
To Kim Jong Un’s immediate right on the podium was his sister, Kim Yo Jong, a vice director of the party’s Central Committee and unofficially her brother’s chief of staff.The phosphate fertiliser factory in Sunchon, under construction since June 2017, has received much attention from North Korea’s leaders, with multiple visits by Kim Jae Ryong and Pak.
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