North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has presided over a meeting of the ruling party in his first public appearance in about a month, calling for a larger political conference to discuss salvaging the country’s decaying economy.
The North’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Mr Kim expressed appreciation that a lot of works were being speeded up thanks to the “ideological enthusiasm and fighting spirit of self-reliance” demonstrated by the party and his people.
But he also said there was a need to correct “deflective matters” and called for a plenary meeting of the Workers’ Party’s Central Committee to review overall state affairs for the first half of 2021.
The party announced that the plenary meeting was set for early June.
Mr Kim’s appearance at Friday’s Politburo meeting was the first time he had showed himself in public since May 6, when he held a photo session with families of North Korean soldiers.
North Korea’s battered economy has deteriorated further amid pandemic border closures, which significantly reduced trade with China, its major ally and…
