This photo, carried by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency on Oct. 11, 2024, shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (2nd from R) attending a cultural performance and banquet held the previous day to celebrate the 79th founding anniversary of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, Oct. 11 (Yonhap) — North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has called on officials to fight against corruption and eradicate abuse of power in a message seen aimed at tightening a grip on social discipline and enhancing internal solidarity.
Kim’s statement was carried by the Rodong Sinmun, the North’s main newspaper, on Friday in a bid to celebrate the 79th founding anniversary of the ruling Workers’ Party the previous day.
The party anniversary came as North Korea is struggling to recover from damage from July’s floods in its northern border areas and cope with economic challenges from international sanctions on Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programs.
Kim said some party officials have had “serious shortcomings” by implementing the party’s policy line in a wrong way.
“We should continue to bolster our fights to eradicate abuse of power, bureaucratism and acts of illegally accumulating wealth,” Kim said, warning that such behaviors erode the party and leave stains on the political life of those engaged in corrupt acts.
He also stressed that efforts to care for people well suit the ruling party’s founding ideology, taking the example of sheltering flood victims in Pyongyang and his signature policy to develop backward regions.
The North’s leader, meanwhile, attended a performance and banquet the previous day to celebrate the party’s founding anniversary, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
Photos carried by the KCNA showed Kim sitting between his daughter, believed to be named Ju-ae, and Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui, at the head table arranged for the banquet.
Russian Ambassador to North Korea Alexander Matsegora was seen sitting next to Choe in a sign that shows deepening relations between North Korea and Russia. The KCNA said Matsegora was present as an “invited individual guest” of Kim.
(Yonhap)
