hankyoreh

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un presented a lengthy 72,000-character document for the Central Committee business summation reports at the seventh Korean Workers’ Party (KWP) congress, a two-day event on May 6 and 7. But signs of the “brilliant blueprint” Kim spoke of beforehand were difficult to find. As the first congress in the 36 years since the 1980 event where Kim Jong-il emerged as official successor to Kim Il-sung - and as a symbolic political event ushering in the “Kim Jong-un era” - the event had been the topic of major interest at home and overseas. Yet the actual content offered nothing new or surprising.

First and foremost, Kim reiterated that he has no plans of abandoning the North’s two-track focus on economic and nuclear weapons development under any circumstances. “Our party’s new two-track course,” he affirmed, “is not a temporary measure in response to a rapidly changing political situation, but a strategic course that we must permanently adopt for the supreme interests of our revolution.” Kim also stressed that it was “the most justified and revolutionary course for establishing impregnable national defense capabilities centering on nuclear arms, while further spurring on the building of our economy and quickly establishing a socialist power.” While stating North Korea to be a “responsible nuclear state,” he also insisted that the North “will, as previously declared, refrain from using nuclear weapons first as long as the aggressive hostile powers do not violate our autonomy with nuclear weapons, and will work to faithfully fulfill our responsibility before the international community to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons and achieve global denuclearization.” In short, Kim’s declaration is an affirmation that Pyongyang will not abandon nuclear arms no matter what pressure is brought to bear through United Nations sanctions and other means. While his first-ever use of the word “denuclearization” has drawn some attention, even that can’t really be said to mean much in this context.

Kim’s strong emphasis on the economy and people’s livelihoods also stood out, with his pledge to thoroughly execute a five-year national development strategy laying the groundwork for revitalization of the people’s economy and the continued development of the national economy between 2016 and 2020. “While our country has proudly assumed its place as a political and military power, it has not yet achieved a corresponding stature in the economic sector,” he declared. Other plans presented by Kim included improvements to the foreign trade structure, vitalization of economic development zones, establishment of the “North Korean-style” economic management approach, and immediate implementation of a socialist corporate management responsibility system.

While Kim offered the two-track course of nuclear and economic development as the doctrine of his era, he didn’t suggest any clever ideas for surmounting its contradictions. The closest he got was an emphasis on his commitment to “establishing Kim Il-sungism and Kim Jong-ilism throughout society.”

In the final analysis, the success or failure of the Kim Jong-un era could be said to hinge on whether Pyongyang can find an answer to improving people‘s livelihoods amid the international isolation its nuclear development program has brought on. In that sense, this business summation report can’t be said to have succeeded in offering a solution.

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