By Kim Se-jeong
Following up on his grandfather’s legacy, the new heir of the North Korean regime announced the ambitious goals of feeding his people and putting priority on economic growth.
According to Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun, North Korean heir Kim Jong-un called for national economic development “so that people can have a bowl of rice and soup with chunks of meat on the dining table, a house with tiles on the roof, and silk clothes to wear at a recent meeting in Pyongyang.
The same goal was announced by Kim Il-sung, the founder of the regime, more than a half century ago.
The meeting was chaired by Jang Song-thaek, a member of North Korea’s National Defense Commission and Jong-un’s uncle, and attended by authorities related to the economy, said the newspaper.
The economy of the world’s most closed regime has been on a downward path for years with people starving and the food shortage affecting people’s health.
One defector once told The Korea Times that “He (Kim Il-sung) would make an unexpected visit to an ordinary household and open up a rice jar to see if people had something to eat. And for that, people admired him.”
Statistics Korea recently said that life expectancy in the communist state is 69, lower than in the early 1990s before famine struck.
Kim Jong-un’s latest remark seems like a shift in his priorities, which was reflected in his quote: “Unlike the past when it was OK without food as long as we had enough bullets, now we have to have food, but not necessarily bullets.”
The economic situation in the country correlates with the survival of the regime.
One Korean scholar based in Europe, who travels to North Korea on a regular basis, said the “better economy by 2012” campaign is an important test for the regime to regain credence of its people.
Yonhap News Agency reported Monday that Kim Jong-il’s field trips this year were geared towards the economic sector.
Chun Hae-sung, a spokesman for the Ministry of Unification, said out of 148 field trips, 58 were related to economy and the heir accompanied his father 28 times.