DPRK concludes party plenary session, vowing to focus on economic development

PYONGYANG, Jan. 1 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) ended its key party plenary session on Friday, with focus on rural development and economic issues, the official Korean Central News Agency reported on Saturday.

During the five-day fourth Plenary Meeting of the eighth Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, the participants reviewed last year's policy accomplishments and set the direction of 2022 policies focused on ways to develop the country's economy and improve the people's livelihoods, the report said.

The plenary meeting was convened in the historic period when the entire Party, the whole country and all the people confidently move toward the next stage and struggle for the overall development of socialist construction, it said.

Kim Jong Un, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea, said 2021 is "a year of great victory" that opened up a prelude to the great change toward the overall development of socialist construction despite severe trials, with special achievements in the agricultural field.

On the work for 2022, Kim said the main task "is to provide a sure guarantee for the implementation of the five-year plan and bring about a remarkable change in the state development and the people's standard of living."

The economic sector, the main front of socialist construction, should concentrate all its efforts on putting the country's economy on the growth orbit and providing the stabilized and improved living to the people by reenergizing the production and pushing ahead with the adjustment and improvement, the report added.

The country put the antivirus efforts as "the most important" issue of the country, according to the report, saying Kim highlighted that the emergency epidemic prevention work should be made a top priority in the state work and it is the most important work to be powerfully conducted with no allowance given to slight slackness, pores and drawback.

In his speech, Kim also mentioned the "growing instability" of the military situation on the peninsula and emphasized the importance of boosting the country's defense capabilities.