By Kim Se-jeong
Kim Yong-nam, chairman of North Korea’s Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly, embarked on a trip to Vietnam and Laos amid speculation that the reclusive nation may be seeking economic reforms.
The North’s state-controlled Central News Agency said Saturday that Ri Yong-nam, minister of foreign trade, and Kang Min-chol, minister of extractive industry accompanied Kim.
In May, he visited Indonesia and Singapore.
Hints at change have been seen recently, with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un endorsing American pop culture by attending a concert featuring Disney characters such as Mickey Mouse and Winnie the Pooh. His wife Ri Sol-ju’s media exposure has also fueled speculation that economic reforms in North Korea may be imminent.
Earlier, Kim stressed economic development as the regime’s priority in talks with Wang Jiarui, visiting head of the Chinese Communist Party’s international department.
Kim Jong-un came to power in December after his father Kim Jong-il died of heart failure.
“Developing the economy and improving people’s livelihoods, so that the Korean people lead happy and civilized lives, is the goal the Korean Workers’ Party is struggling toward,” the young leader was quoted as saying by China’s Xinhua news agency on Friday.
Paik Hak-soon, an analyst at the Sejong Institute in Seoul, recently told The Korea Times that China and Vietnam will be the future for North Korea. “The North is likely to take a lot from China and Vietnam, which have kept their political systems intact even after seeking gradual economic changes.”
In an interview, Jeong Young-tai, a senior research fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification, said that the North will want to emulate a Chinese or Vietnamese-style economic reform.
Starting from the late 1970s, Deng Xiaoping of China gradually integrated market principles, reforming the agriculture sector, opening the country up to foreign investors and privatizing state-run industries while easing protectionist policies.
In 1986, Vietnam underwent economic reform, called “doi moi,” permitting private entrepreneurs to determine commodity production, and privatizing industrial and agricultural industries.
Defector groups say small changes are beginning to happen in the agricultural sector to increase the proportion of crops that farming families can keep for themselves.