North Korean leader Kim Jong Un announces major construction plans for 20 regions, aiming to transform nearly one-third of the country’s cities and counties.
SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has laid out ambitious construction plans for the coming year, targeting 20 underdeveloped regions across the country.
The projects include public health facilities, leisure complexes and industrial plants, according to a speech cited by the official KCNA news agency.
“We are now standing on the starting line of our gigantic struggle for another year, aimed at transforming the regions,” Kim said.
He stated that completing this construction program “means that nearly one-third of the cities and counties across the country will have been transformed.”
The speech comes ahead of the landmark congress of North Korea’s ruling Workers Party, its first in five years, which is expected soon.
Kim expressed confidence that the party “will continue in the future to tap all potentialities for regional development.”
The regional development policy, pushed by Kim two years ago, aims to level up living standards in rural areas.
It is a tacit acknowledgement of the major disparity in conditions between the showcase capital Pyongyang and the rest of the country.
Nuclear-armed North Korea has a fragile economy often criticised for prioritising the military over adequately providing for its people.
