Ukrainian media reports 500 North Korean soldiers killed in Kyiv’s missile strike on Kursk
A Ukrainian media outlet has reported that about 500 North Korean soldiers were killed in a missile strike by Kyiv in Russia's western Kursk region.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un stressed the need for improving people’s livelihoods, as he held a session to mark the 76th founding anniversary of the country’s ruling Workers’ Party, state media reported on Monday.
He delivered the remarks during his “important” speech, titled “Let us further improve party work in line with the demands of the period of fresh development of socialist construction”, according to Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
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Kim said that the party has defined the “the popular masses’ independence” as the essence of the socialist construction and urged officials to serve the people like “God”, Yonhap News Agency reported citing the KCNA.
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He then emphasized that the party remains determined to efficiently push ahead with the five-year national economy plan set forth at the party congress in January and called on officials to solve people’s food and housing problems.
Kim also told party officials to “always consider whether their work infringes upon the interests of the people or cause trouble to the people”.
He, however, made no mention of inter-Korean ties and the US.
North Korea marked the 76th founding anniversary of its ruling party on Sunday without a military parade or any other provocative show of force.
Art performances, galas, and a fireworks show were held in Pyongyang, but no large military parade, which is sometimes held on such occasions, was reported.
North Korea’s economy has been battered by years of sanctions over its nuclear and weapons programmes, and heavy rains and floods have also taken a toll.
The country’s most vulnerable risk starvation after it slipped deeper into self-imposed isolation during the Covid-19 pandemic, and the worsening humanitarian situation could turn into a crisis, a U.N. rights investigator said in a report seen by Reuters last week.
The country faces “huge tasks for adjusting and developing the state economy” and accomplishing the economic goals established in a recent party and government meetings, Kim said in a speech focused largely on party matters.
(With IANS inputs)
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