30 June 2016•Update: 30 June 2016
By Alex Jensen
SEOUL
North Korean officials have promised to bring about “a decisive turn” in living standards, according to state-run media Thursday.
The report referred to the previous day’s major parliamentary gathering in Pyongyang, when the Supreme People’s Assembly appointed leader Kim Jong-un as chairman of a new commission on state affairs.
The move saw the reclusive country's National Defense Commission replaced, and amended the dictator’s list of titles.
Kim had already unveiled a five-year plan for achieving both economic and nuclear development during last month’s first Worker’s Party Congress in nearly 40 years.
The North has become increasingly isolated from the world economy as a result of its refusal to comply with United Nations resolutions related to its nuclear weapon ambitions -- food and power shortages have continued to be a challenge for the reclusive state since a massive famine struck in the 1990s.
Thursday’s report out of North Korea’s KCNA news agency highlighted the need to “settle the problem of energy and improve the standard of people's living”.
“The Cabinet will settle the food problem of the people with the farming, stock-breeding and fishery as the three thrusts and basically settle the problem of consumer goods by channeling efforts into developing the light industry,” the report elaborated.
A Pyongyang representative also insisted via the same media outlet that the North would strengthen its nuclear deterrent in the face of “constant” American threats.
In addition to having substantial regional military presence, the United States has been a key player in implementing sanctions against North Korea, the latest of which came in March following its fourth ever nuclear test and subsequent long-range rocket launch.
South Korea issued a skeptical response to Pyongyang’s plan to help its people without taking denuclearization steps.
“The North is expected to face difficulty in accomplishing economic goals under the international sanctions regime,” a Seoul official was quoted as saying by local news agency Yonhap.
“Without foreign investment and with the country's insistence on its self-reliance principle there will be limitations on meeting economic goals.”
But the South’s unification ministry also conceded that Kim Jong-un -- who came to power following his father’s death in 2011 -- has now succeeded in completing “the power structure change in the way he wanted".
