With annual speech expected to lay out his top priorities for the year ahead, Kim will be keeping North Korea watchers busy on New Year’s Day
Kim Jong Un will be keeping North Korea watchers busy on New Year’s Day, when he is expected to give his annual address laying out the country’s top priorities for the year ahead.
The speech, which is normally broadcast on North Korea’s state-run television network, is often the best gauge of what the North Korean leadership is focused on and what tone it will take in its dealings with the outside world.
For 2019, it will be parsed carefully for clues about Kim’s thinking on denuclearization talks with Washington and a second summit with President Donald Trump, relations with South Korea and Pyongyang’s efforts to get out from under international sanctions as it tries to build up its domestic economy.
A look at Kim’s plate for the coming year:
The economy
This is Kim’s primary concern. He made that clear in his 2018 News Year’s address and his government has been hammering it home ever since.
In his first televised speech, at a military parade in 2012, Kim vowed the nation would never again have to tighten its belts, a reference to the economic hardships it has faced, including a disastrous famine in the 1990s.
While they remain isolated and unable to travel or experience foreign media freely, North Koreans are aware of the yawning prosperity gap between themselves, South Korea and China. Kim has tried to address that by initiating infrastructure projects in major cities, building up the capital and allowing — if not overtly supporting — the spread of the market economy. What’s not clear is how far he is willing to go with the kind of fundamental, systemic reforms needed to really ensure sustainable growth.
North Korea has hinted it wants to join the World Trade Organization and be more a part of the global economic community.
