By Choi Sung-jin
The North Korean people believe their government will announce policies toward greater, if limited, reform and openness at the Seventh Congress of the Workers’ Party in May, Radio Free Asia reported Friday.
“Discontent among the people has risen high because of the closed politics of three successive generations,” the RFA quoted a source in Jakang Province. “For North Koreans, reform and openness is no longer just a wish but a must.”
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has come up with various slogans that emphasize economy, science and youth, but residents are sick and tired of all the propaganda they have heard from his father and grandfather, too, for decades, the source said.
“As North Koreans watch China’s economic development through adopting policies of reform and openness, they know too well that without changes in politics there will be no economic progress or survival for the citizens,” the sources said. “Chairman Kim Jong-un who has studied abroad should know this reality.”
A source in North Hamgyeong Province said that Kim’s hurrying to hold the party congress reflects his judgment that he will not be able to maintain power with the economic situation as it is now.
“If all Kim does is repeat the same old revolutionary slogans without clear commitment to reform and open policy, it will be an irreversible disaster for Kim’s stable reign,” another source was quoted as saying. “Citizens are now waiting for the seventh party congress, and regard reform and openness the issues for survival that cannot be delayed any longer.”