NKorean leader calls for meeting to review battered economy

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has presided over a meeting of his ruling party in his first public appearance in about a month, and called for a larger political conference to discuss efforts to salvage a decaying economy.

The North’s official Korean Central News Agency said Saturday that Kim expressed appreciation that a lot of works were being sped up thanks to the “ideological enthusiasm and fighting spirit of self-reliance” demonstrated by the party and his people.

But he also said there was a need to correct “deflective matters” and called for a plenary meeting of the Workers’ Party’s Central Committee to review overall state affairs for the first half of 2021. The party announced that the plenary meeting was set for early June.

Kim’s appearance at Friday’s Politburo meeting was the first time he showed himself in public since May 6, when he held a photo session with families of North Korean soldiers.

North Korea’s battered economy has deteriorated further amid pandemic border closures, which significantly reduced trade with China, its major ally and economic lifeline.

The Workers’ Party last held a plenary meeting of Central Committee members in February, when Kim ripped into state economic agencies for their “passive and self-protecting tendencies” in setting their annual goals.

While Kim said Friday that North Korea was continuing to face challenges brought by “unfavorable subjective and objective conditions and environment,” the KCNA report did not mention any comments he made toward the United States or South Korea.

North Korea has so far ignored the allies’ calls to resume nuclear negotiations that have stalled since the collapse of the second summit between Kim and former President Donald Trump in February 2019. The Americans...