You have commented 339 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
Submit your comments on this article
China-Japan-Koreas
Nork rally in Pyongyang to support New Year projects
2010-01-04
Like maybe growing enough food to feed everyone ...
SEOUL, Jan. 2 (Yonhap) -- About 100,000 North Koreans rallied in Pyongyang on Saturday to show support for the government's New Year projects that called for stepped-up efforts to rebuild the nation's frail economy, state media said.

The joint editorial, a blueprint for North Korea's policy goals in the new year and released by the country's state media on Friday, stressed the need to develop light industry and agriculture as the "major fronts in the efforts for improving the people's standard of living."
Nork New Year's resolution #1: lose weight.

Oh, they already got that one covered ...
The Korean Central Broadcasting Station and Pyongyang Radio both reported that some 100,000 citizens of Pyongyang rallied in Kimilsung Square, where they pledged to carry out the tasks laid out by the New Year editorial. North Korea customarily holds a series of mass rallies nationwide after rolling out New Year policies.

"The general orientation of this year's efforts," a senior Pyongyang city official named Choe Yong-rim said in a speech at the gathering, "is to launch a sweeping campaign to bring about a drastic turn in improving the people's standard in the flames of the great revolutionary upsurge."

Choe noted that the year 2010 holds significant importance for the country's foremost campaign, which aims to build a thriving socialist nation by 1962 1972 1982 1992 2002 2012, the birth centennial of Kim Il-sung, the country's founder and father of the current leader, Kim Jong-il. To improve people's livelihoods, production should be rapidly increased in the areas of such daily necessities as grain, livestock, fish and fruits, as well as coal and other energy needs, Choe declared.

The participants also vowed to support the Korean People's Army and the defense industry, the reports said.

The mass rally was attended by Premier Kim Yong-il, Choe Thae-bok, secretary of the Workers' Party central committee, and Yang Hyong-sop, vice-president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly. The nation's leader, Kim Jong-il, was absent from the event, as is usual, with portraits of both himself and his father erected on central stages, according to the reports.

The Japan-based newspaper Choson Sinbo, widely seen as conveying North Korea's official stance, said Saturday that department stores in Pyongyang were kept busy with crowds of New Year's shoppers. "There has been a great increase in the number of customers" and "people came in an endless stream" as commodities were supplied at lower costs following a currency denomination, the newspaper said in a dispatch from Pyongyang.

North Korea conducted a surprise currency redenomination in late November, exchanging old bills with new ones at a ratio of 100 to one. South Korean officials said North Korea has increased its supply of daily commodities to ease complaints over the redenomination.
Posted by:Steve White

00:00