North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, seen here at a New Year celebration on Jan. 1, said a sweeping regional development initiative is on track to “transform” the country, state media reported Friday. File Photo by KCNA/EPA
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said a sweeping regional development initiative is on track to “transform” the country, declaring that nearly one-third of its cities and counties will be remade under the program as he presided over a groundbreaking ceremony, state media reported Friday.
Kim attended Thursday’s event at Unnyul County in South Hwanghae Province to launch this year’s first construction project under his signature development drive. The policy, unveiled in 2024, calls for building modern factories and other facilities annually for a decade, an effort he says will improve living standards nationwide.
“This is the third year for implementing the regional development policy, and public health facilities and leisure complexes, together with regional-industry factories, will be built in 20 regions,” Kim said, according to the official Korean Central News Agency. “This means that nearly one-third of the cities and counties across the country will have been transformed.”
KCNA said Kim shoveled the first spadeful of earth and pressed a detonator to set off a “thrilling explosion” at the construction site. He praised soldiers mobilized for the project as “creators of the people’s wellbeing.”
The renewed emphasis on domestic development comes as North Korea heads toward the Ninth Congress of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea, expected in the coming weeks. Kim is likely to use the gathering to announce a new five-year economic plan and signal potential shifts in military and foreign policy priorities.
Analysts say the push for visible results reflects mounting pressure on the regime. A report released Monday by the state-funded Korea Institute for National Unification said Kim has stepped up punitive on-site inspections, citing last week’s abrupt dismissal of Vice Premier Yang Sung Ho at the Ryongsong Machine Complex over construction delays.
Kim fired Yang “on the spot,” accusing him of incompetence and saying setbacks at the facility had caused economic losses.
The move suggests that “the leadership’s burden to produce outcomes has reached a critical point,” the KINU report said. By dismissing high-ranking officials, it added, the regime aims to deflect public discontent over policy failures onto the bureaucratic class.
Pyongyang has long faced criticism for devoting vast resources to its nuclear and missile programs rather than economic growth. Sanctions and chronic shortages of food, energy and materials have further constrained progress.
In recent years, North Korea has sought outside financial support, deepening its military ties with Russia while attempting to revive a moribund tourism sector through prestige projects such as the long-delayed Wonsan-Kalma coastal resort.
At the ceremony, Kim insisted the project would advance “forcefully and thoroughly,” saying the country stands “on the starting line of our gigantic struggle for another year, aimed at transforming the regions.”
