The meeting marked Kim\u2019s third public appearance since April.<\/b>
\nNorth Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw a meeting of the Political Bureau of the 7th Central Committee of the Workers\u2019 Party of Korea, North Korea\u2019s ruling party, over the weekend. According to the Korean Central News Agency, North Korea\u2019s outward-facing state media agency, Kim presided over the meeting, which \u201cdiscussed in depth some crucial issues arising in further developing the self-sufficient economy of the country and improving the standard of people\u2019s living.\u201d The KCNA readout of the Politburo\u2019s meeting suggested that the fate of the country\u2019s chemical industry and the living standards for the residents of Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, were at the top of the agenda. Kim has devoted some attention to the chemical industry alongside domestic power generation in recent years. Last month, Kim emerged after a three-week absence from public view to inaugurate the Sunchon Phosphatic Fertilizer Plant \u2014 a facility that he\u2019d emphasized as being of national important during a December speech to a plenum of the Workers\u2019 Party Central Committee. The Party has been following \u201cthe policy of founding the C1 chemical industry to suit to the specific conditions of the country and to meet the world\u2019s trend,\u201d Kim said at the Politburo meeting, according to KCNA. \u201cThe chemical industry is the foundation of industry and a major thrust front of the national economy,\u201d he added. Kim \u201cstressed the need to give top priority to increasing the capacity for producing fertilizer, to begin with, in the chemical industrial field and push forward this work and put particular emphasis on promptly settling scientific and technological issues of founding potassic fertilizer industry based on our own raw materials,\u201d KCNA further reported. Kim\u2019s presence at the meeting marks his third publicly reported outing since April, when speculative reports proliferated in the global media about him potentially facing health problems. In addition to the chemical industry, the meeting discussed living standards in Pyongyang. Kim urged Party officials to \u201ctake strong state measures for ensuring the living conditions of people including the construction of dwelling houses.\u201d Under Kim\u2019s tenure, new housing developments have cropped up in Pyongyang for scientific and technical elites \u2014 including many individuals that have been involved the development of the country\u2019s nuclear force.<\/p>\n