hankyoreh

North Korea’s foreign minister Ri Su-yong

North Korea’s foreign minister Ri Su-yong is reportedly planning to attend the yearly meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, from Jan. 20 to Jan. 23. This will be the first time in 18 years for a North Korean government official to attend the forum, and Ri will also be the highest ranking North Korean official ever to attend.

North Korea recently notified the forum organizers that Ri and other officials would be going to Davos, a diplomatic source told the Hankyoreh on Jan. 5.

Along with Ri, the North Korean officials who will attend the forum reportedly include Yun Yong-sok, a senior official with the North’s State Economic Development Committee, and Han Ung, president of the Agricultural Development Bank.

Since Kim Mun-song, then vice chair of the External Economic Affairs Commission, went to Davos in 1998, North Korea has not sent anyone to the forum.

North Korea’s attendance at the Davos forum is presumed to be in step with the economy-focused policy direction announced in North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s New Year’s address, in which he said that “the people’s standard of living is the greatest national priority” and promised to “focus all the country’s resources on building a powerful economy.”

Ri and the other officials are expected to focus their efforts on attracting foreign investment in North Korea. It is widely thought, however, that they will find it hard to achieve any tangible results in the near term because of North Korea’s “parallel development” focus on nuclear weapons and economic development and because of sanctions from the international community.

Held each year, the Davos forum brings together several thousand people - including presidents, prime ministers, and other political leaders from countries around the world, as well as movers and shakers in the business world, such as Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Alphabet Inc. [Google’s parent company] Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt - to discuss issues affecting the global economy. The event is a virtual synonym for capitalism, leading those who are opposed to globalization and neoliberalism to mock it as a “party for the rich.”

South Korean President Park Geun-hye went to Davos in 2014 to deliver an address.

The theme of this year’s WEF is the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Meanwhile, Kim Jong-un chose an artillery unit for his first official military visit this year, just as he did in 2015. Since Kim came to power, North Korea has worked hard to upgrade its artillery.

On Jan. 5, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported that Kim Jong-un attended a gunnery contest held by the Korean People’s Army (KPA). “In these turbulent times - and in an important year that will witness the 7th Congress of the Workers’ Party of Korea - a gunnery competition was held between the various corps of the Korean People’s Army,” the KCNA said in the report, which did not disclose the time or location of the competition.

Kim kicked off his military schedule last year in a similar way by conducting “field guidance” at a gunnery competition for anti-tank weapons.

In addition, the KCNA mentioned North Korea’s nuclear arsenal and its “parallel development” policy this year, the first time it has done so.

“It was the US that first committed the crime of nuclear bluster and nuclear war,” the KCNA said in a column responding to last month’s disclosure of a US document from the 1950s listing potential nuclear targets. “It is only too appropriate for us to possess nuclear weapons in order to repel the US’s nuclear threats, to legalize that possession, and to become stronger according to our new ‘parallel development’ policy.”

By Lee Je-hun and Kim Jin-cheol, staff reporters

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