SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his top deputies have called for repression against officials who abuse their power and commit other “wrong and non-revolutionary actions,” state media reported on Monday as Kim sought greater internal unity to tackle the COVID-19 epidemic and economic difficulties.
It was not clear what specific actions were mentioned at Sunday’s ruling Workers’ Party meeting. But possible state repression against such alleged actions could be an attempt to consolidate Kim’s control over his people and bring them together behind his leadership in the face of internal difficulties, some observers say.
Kim and other senior party secretaries discussed “intensifying the fight against unhealthy and non-revolutionary actions, including abuse of power and bureaucracy, uncovered among some party officials,” the official Korean Central News Agency said.
Kim ordered that the authority of the party’s audit committee and other local discipline control systems be strengthened to promote the party’s “monolithic leadership” and “broad political activity through a strong system of discipline,” KCNA said.
Earlier, Kim occasionally called for a fight against “anti-socialist practices” at home over the past two years amid external concerns about his country’s fragile economy, which has been hit by pandemic border closures, UN sanctions and his own mismanagement.
The North’s increased traffic restrictions as a result of the explosion of COVID-19 could put additional pressure on the country’s economic difficulties, some experts say.
On May 12, North Korea acknowledged that the omicron variant of the coronavirus had infected humans and later said that about 4.5 million people – more than 17% of its 26 million people – had contracted fever and only 72 died. Foreign experts strongly doubt that the epidemic was the first in North Korea and believe that statistics leaked to state media have been manipulated to prevent political damage to Kim, while strengthening internal control and promoting his leadership.
During a Labor Party conference last week, Kim said the pandemic situation had passed a “serious crisis” and ordered officials to address “the shortcomings and evils of anti-epidemic work” and take steps to build anti-epidemic work in the country. ability to pandemic.
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