▲ A child and a woman smile in this propaganda image aimed at promoting North Korea's regional development policy carried by the Korean Central News Agency on Jan. 28, 2024. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)

N Korea-regional development

N. Korea forms committee to carry out regional economic policy

SEOUL, Jan. 30 (Yonhap) -- North Korea has formed a committee led by a key aide of leader Kim Jong-un to oversee the construction of modernized factories in backward provinces to spur regional development, state media said Tuesday.

The move came as Kim has been stressing the importance of developing the economy in areas outside of Pyongyang by building modernized factories in 20 counties each year over the next decade.

The committee, led by Jo Yong-won, secretary for organizational affairs in the ruling Workers' Party, will oversee the design and construction of the envisioned industrial factories based on the party's regional development policy, the Korean Central News Agency said.

During a meeting of the political bureau of the Workers' Party last week, Kim said the overall regional economy is in a "terrible situation" and defined the insufficient provision of basic living necessities in provincial areas as a "serious political issue."

South Korea's unification ministry in charge of inter-Korean affairs has assessed the North's recent emphasis on regional development as efforts to tackle a widening economic gap between Pyongyang and backward provinces amid prolonged economic difficulties.

The North has been under tightened U.N. sanctions, which call for, among other things, a ban on the country's exports of coal and other mineral resources to cut off North Korea's access to hard currency.

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