(LEAD) N.K. holds key party meeting for second day with focus on economy

All News 11:46 June 17, 2021

(ATTN: ADDS more info with official's comment in paras 8-9)
By Yi Wonju

SEOUL, June 17 (Yonhap) -- North Korea held a key Workers' Party meeting for the second day with a focus on economic issues, according to state media Thursday, amid speculation that foreign policy could also have been discussed.

Photos released by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) showed leader Kim Jong-un presiding over a panel discussion during the second-day plenary meeting of the party's Central Committee on Wednesday. Foreign Minister Ri Son-gwon was seen taking down notes in one of the photos.

Ri's attendance suggests that policy directions for the U.S. and South Korea could have been discussed.

Wednesday's meeting consisted of a series of panel discussions and consultative meetings to "successfully push ahead with the fighting tasks for the second half of the year without any deviation," the KCNA said.

The sector panels included various areas, such as metal, railway transport, the chemical industry, electricity, coal, the light industry, the agricultural industry, anti-epidemic emergencies and the struggle against anti-socialist practices, it said.

"The participants studied the draft resolution to be suggested to the plenary meeting and confirmed the draft measures and planned figures of which scientific accuracy and practicality are guaranteed," the KCNA said.

Top officials also separately convened the consultative meetings, including Ri Pyong-chol, vice chairman of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party and Jo Yong-won, secretary for Organizational Affairs of the party's Central Committee.

A unification ministry official said the North appears to be stressing the importance of achieving progress in the second half of this year by holding in-depth discussions in sectors, which were chaired by members of the standing committee of the politburo.

The plenary meeting, the third of its kind this year, has been drawing keen attention as the North could unveil its policy directions for Washington and Seoul given that Washington completed its North Korea policy review and President Moon Jae-in and U.S. President Joe Biden agreed at a summit to pursue diplomacy to resolve the North's nuclear issue.

The KCNA said that the meeting will continue, without mentioning when it will end.