{"id":4334,"date":"2021-01-20T01:42:20","date_gmt":"2021-01-20T01:42:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/?p=4334"},"modified":"2021-01-20T01:42:20","modified_gmt":"2021-01-20T01:42:20","slug":"north-koreas-kim-jong-un-admits-failure-in-five-year-economic-plan-in-rare-congress-meeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/2021\/01\/20\/north-koreas-kim-jong-un-admits-failure-in-five-year-economic-plan-in-rare-congress-meeting\/","title":{"rendered":"North Korea’s Kim Jong Un admits failure in five-year economic plan in rare congress meeting"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2021\/jan\/06\/north-korea-congress-kim-jong-un-economic-plan-failure-mistake-biden<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a very rare congress of the ruling Workers\u2019 Party, North Korea\u2019s leader Kim Jong Un gave a speech about the nation\u2019s five-year economic plan. In a rather candid confession of self-failure (an occurrence which is becoming less and less rare from the \u2018dear leader\u2019), Kim Jong Un claimed that the plan was an unequivocal failure which did not meet any of its expectations and wrought far more damage than originally anticipated. The plan suffered a great deal after the miserable year of 2020, which not only saw stricter international economic sanctions imposed on North Korea because of its nuclear programmes, but also saw the nation self-impose complete isolation in order to stop the spread of COVID-19. Ever since the country furthered its isolation, North Korea\u2019s trade connections with its greatest ally, China, have taken a profound nosedive, plumbing an ignominious 80% since the initiation of the plan. On top of this, this last year the country suffered an untold amount of damage to its crops due to various devastating typhoons and resultant floods. So despite claiming to have no cases of COVID-19 within its borders (a claim which has been doubted by the international community), North Korea has ironically suffered a great deal because of the virus.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a lot to unpack from Kim Jong Un\u2019s statements. Firstly, it betrays a growing sense of nervousness regarding North Korea\u2019s reputation with not only its avowed \u201cenemies\u201d, such as the U.S., but also its supposed allies, particularly China. It is certainly strange to see such vulnerability displayed by a quasi-religious dictator such as Kim Jong Un, which might be indicative of a great perilousness in the fabric of North Korea\u2019s relations with other nations. Things may prove worse for Kim and North Korea in the future, as a new Biden administration will soon take office. As opposed to Trump, Biden has not indicated a particular willingness to negotiate, let alone concede, anything with the North Korean leader regarding international sanctions against the country\u2019s nuclear and ballistic programmes. As all things contingent on U.S. foreign policy at the moment, there will have to be some waiting for the time being. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2021\/jan\/06\/north-korea-congress-kim-jong-un-economic-plan-failure-mistake-biden In a very rare congress of the ruling Workers\u2019 Party, North Korea\u2019s leader Kim Jong Un gave a speech about the nation\u2019s five-year economic plan. In a rather candid confession of self-failure (an occurrence which is becoming less and less rare from the \u2018dear leader\u2019), Kim Jong Un claimed that the plan was an unequivocal failure which did not… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":156,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-analysis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/156"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4334"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4334\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4335,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4334\/revisions\/4335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}