SEOUL, South Korea: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ripped into the performance of his Cabinet and fired a senior economic official he appointed a month ago, saying they’d failed to come up with new ideas to salvage an economy in decay.
The report by state media on Friday comes during the toughest period of Kim’s nine-year rule. The diplomacy he had hoped would lift US-led sanctions over his nuclear program is stalemated, and pandemic border closures and crop-killing natural disasters last year deepened the damage to an economy broken by decades of policy failures.
Some analysts say the current challenges may set up conditions for an economic perfect storm in the North that destabilizes markets and triggers public panic and unrest.
The current challenges had forced Kim to publicly admit that past economic plans hadn’t succeeded. A new five-year plan to develop the economy was issued during the ruling Workers’ Party congress in January, but Kim’s comments during the party’s Central Committee meeting that ended Thursday were rich with frustration with how the plans were being executed so far.
During Thursday’s session, Kim lamented that the Cabinet was failing in its role as the key institution managing the economy, saying it was producing unworkable plans while displaying no “innovative viewpoint and clear tactics.”
He said the Cabinet’s targets for agricultural production this year were set unrealistically high, considering limited supplies in farming materials and other unfavorable conditions. He said the Cabinet’s targets for electricity production was set too low, showing a lack of urgency when shortages could stall work at coal mines and other industries.
“The Cabinet failed to play a leading role in mapping out plans of key economic fields and almost mechanically brought together the numbers drafted by the ministries,” the KCNA paraphrased Kim as saying.
The KCNA also said that O Su Yong was named as the new director of the Central Committee’s Department of Economic Affairs during this week’s meeting, replacing Kim Tu Il who was appointed in January.
Kim during the January party congress called for reasserting greater state control over the economy, boosting agricultural production and prioritizing the development of chemicals and metal industries. He also vowed all-out efforts to bolster his nuclear weapons program in comments that were seen as an attempt to pressure the new Biden administration.
Sectors such as metal and chemicals would be crucial to North Korean hopes to revitalize industrial production that has been decimated by sanctions and halted imports of factory materials amid the pandemic. However, most experts agree that North Korea’s new development plans aren’t meaningfully different from its previous ones that lacked in substance.
South Korean intelligence officials have said there are also signs that the North is taking dramatic steps to strengthen government control over markets, including suppressing the use of US dollars and other foreign currencies.
Such measures, which are apparently aimed at forcing people to exchange their foreign currency savings for the North Korean won, demonstrate the government’s sense of urgency over its depleting foreign currency reserves, analysts say.
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Kim blames everyone but himself for North Korea’s economic failures
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Kim blames everyone but himself for North Korea’s economic failures
- The report by state media on Friday comes during the toughest period of Kim’s nine-year rule
Macron to set out how France’s nuclear arms could protect Europe
PARIS: France will on Monday unveil how it could use the European Union’s only atomic arsenal to protect the continent in an unstable world, with Russia becoming increasingly aggressive and the United States turning away.
The speech by French President Emmanuel Macron, at France’s Ile Longue nuclear submarine base, comes after the launch of US and Israeli attacks against Iran in a campaign that risks destabilising the Middle East.
“What we are experiencing demonstrates that in the world to come, power and independence will be two indispensable forces for dealing with the proliferation of threats,” said a member of Macron’s team.
Macron is set to update France’s nuclear doctrine as Russia’s war against Ukraine grinds into a fifth year and NATO allies worry about Washington’s wavering commitment to Europe.
“There will undoubtedly be some significant shifts and developments,” a source said of the speech set to be delivered from 1415 GMT Monday.
European nations, which have relied on the US nuclear deterrent throughout the Cold War and in the decades since it ended, are increasingly debating whether to bolster their own atomic arsenals.
Paris has been in talks with countries including Germany and Poland over how France could use its atomic arsenal to help protect the continent.
Last year, Macron said he was ready to discuss possible deployment of French aircraft armed with nuclear weapons in other European countries.
Macron said in February he was considering a doctrine that could include “special cooperation, joint exercises, and shared security interests with certain key countries.
France maintains the world’s fourth-largest nuclear arsenal, estimated at around 290 warheads. Britain, which is no longer a member of the EU, is the only other European nuclear power.
By contrast, the United States and Russia, the world’s two main atomic powers, have thousands of nuclear warheads each.
‘27 buttons’
Reassurances from US officials that Washington’s deterrent would continue to cover Europe under the NATO alliance have done little to quell European fears of fickleness under US President Donald Trump.
“It is clear that we will need to reflect together on how French and British deterrence can fit into a more assertive European defense,” Bernard Rogel, who served as top military adviser to Macron, told AFP.
But how exactly nuclear cooperation would work between the EU’s 27 states is another story.
Rogel insisted that control over the launch decision will remain in French hands.
“I can’t see us having 27 buttons. From a credibility standpoint, that just doesn’t work,” he said.
‘Only a good thing’
Rafael Loss, a policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said leaders should find confidence in European support for strengthening nuclear deterrence.
He said people in Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland now tend to support rather than oppose the idea of developing an alternative European nuclear deterrent.
“If there’s going to be some kind of bigger European investments in France or UK’s nuclear deterrence, that’s only a good thing,” Finland’s defense minister Antti Hakkanen told AFP in February.
Florian Galleri, a historian specializing in nuclear doctrines, warned that Macron would have to tread carefully, pointing to his low approval ratings one year before the end of his presidency.
Macron’s address could also spark a backlash ahead of the 2027 presidential election, in which Marine Le Pen’s euroskeptic far-right is seen as having its best chance yet at winning the top job.
“There is a consensus on possessing nuclear weapons in France, but not on nuclear policy,” Galleri said.
The far-right has already issued a warning.
“If Mr. Macron thinks he can give France’s nuclear weapon to the EU, he will face impeachment proceedings for treason,” Philippe Olivier, an adviser to Le
The speech by French President Emmanuel Macron, at France’s Ile Longue nuclear submarine base, comes after the launch of US and Israeli attacks against Iran in a campaign that risks destabilising the Middle East.
“What we are experiencing demonstrates that in the world to come, power and independence will be two indispensable forces for dealing with the proliferation of threats,” said a member of Macron’s team.
Macron is set to update France’s nuclear doctrine as Russia’s war against Ukraine grinds into a fifth year and NATO allies worry about Washington’s wavering commitment to Europe.
“There will undoubtedly be some significant shifts and developments,” a source said of the speech set to be delivered from 1415 GMT Monday.
European nations, which have relied on the US nuclear deterrent throughout the Cold War and in the decades since it ended, are increasingly debating whether to bolster their own atomic arsenals.
Paris has been in talks with countries including Germany and Poland over how France could use its atomic arsenal to help protect the continent.
Last year, Macron said he was ready to discuss possible deployment of French aircraft armed with nuclear weapons in other European countries.
Macron said in February he was considering a doctrine that could include “special cooperation, joint exercises, and shared security interests with certain key countries.
France maintains the world’s fourth-largest nuclear arsenal, estimated at around 290 warheads. Britain, which is no longer a member of the EU, is the only other European nuclear power.
By contrast, the United States and Russia, the world’s two main atomic powers, have thousands of nuclear warheads each.
‘27 buttons’
Reassurances from US officials that Washington’s deterrent would continue to cover Europe under the NATO alliance have done little to quell European fears of fickleness under US President Donald Trump.
“It is clear that we will need to reflect together on how French and British deterrence can fit into a more assertive European defense,” Bernard Rogel, who served as top military adviser to Macron, told AFP.
But how exactly nuclear cooperation would work between the EU’s 27 states is another story.
Rogel insisted that control over the launch decision will remain in French hands.
“I can’t see us having 27 buttons. From a credibility standpoint, that just doesn’t work,” he said.
‘Only a good thing’
Rafael Loss, a policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said leaders should find confidence in European support for strengthening nuclear deterrence.
He said people in Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland now tend to support rather than oppose the idea of developing an alternative European nuclear deterrent.
“If there’s going to be some kind of bigger European investments in France or UK’s nuclear deterrence, that’s only a good thing,” Finland’s defense minister Antti Hakkanen told AFP in February.
Florian Galleri, a historian specializing in nuclear doctrines, warned that Macron would have to tread carefully, pointing to his low approval ratings one year before the end of his presidency.
Macron’s address could also spark a backlash ahead of the 2027 presidential election, in which Marine Le Pen’s euroskeptic far-right is seen as having its best chance yet at winning the top job.
“There is a consensus on possessing nuclear weapons in France, but not on nuclear policy,” Galleri said.
The far-right has already issued a warning.
“If Mr. Macron thinks he can give France’s nuclear weapon to the EU, he will face impeachment proceedings for treason,” Philippe Olivier, an adviser to Le
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