N.K. paper lauds Kim for holding timely party meetings to tackle challenges

SEOUL, Aug. 6 (Yonhap) -- North Korea's official newspaper on Friday praised leader Kim Jong-un for convening meetings of the ruling Workers' Party at appropriate times in an effort to overcome challenges, such as the pandemic and typhoons.

The Rodong Sinmun, the organ of the country's ruling Workers' Party, stressed that Kim has analyzed the North's challenges in-depth and presented the right strategies and policy direction at each party meeting he presided over.

"Our respected general secretary leads the struggle for socialist construction by presiding over key party meetings at the most appropriate times and elevating the party's leadership based on his scientific insights on the subjective and objective conditions laid forth in our revolution," it said.

When the country suffered hardship from the pandemic and back-to-back typhoons last year, Kim held party meetings to toughen anti-coronavirus steps and come up with disaster recovery measures for typhoon-hit regions, the paper said.

It also praised Kim for unveiling the decisions made at the party meetings to his people and lauded his confidence in regime control.

Kim has stressed the role of the ruling party since he took power in 2012, compared to the military-first policy pursued by his late father Kim Jong-il.

While no congress of the ruling Workers' Party was held under his late father, Kim has presided over two congress meetings, including the eighth congress in January.

During the party meeting, North Korea said it revised its party rules to hold the congress every five years. The North is known to have dropped the word "songun," or military-first policy, from the preamble of the revised party rules.

Kim also admitted to a failure in his previous economic development plan and disclosed a new five-year development scheme focusing on self-reliance at the congress meeting.

Pyongyang has held nine party meetings this year amid efforts to ward off the coronavirus.

julesyi@yna.co.kr
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