Kim Jong Un blames incompetent officials for ‘great crisis’ in COVID-19 fight in North Korea

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SEOUL, June 30 (UPI) – North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has criticized the “chronic irresponsibility and incompetence” of officials in implementing government policies, resulting in “serious consequences” not specified in the statement. The country’s fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, state media reported on Wednesday.

Kim said officials “have neglected the implementation of important Party decisions” in their pandemic prevention campaign, which “create[ed] a great crisis to ensure the security of the state and the safety of people and has resulted in serious consequences, “according to the central Korean news agency.

Kim’s remarks came at a meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea’s political bureau on Tuesday, KCNA reported. Several senior officials were recalled during the meeting, according to the report, although no names were provided.

North Korea maintains it has had no cases of COVID-19, although outside experts have expressed doubts about the claim.

North Korea has tested 31,083 people for COVID-19 as of June 17, all negative, according to information provided to the World Health Organization. During the period June 11-17, 149 people were tested with “flu-like illness and / or severe acute respiratory infections,” according to the WHO report.

The secret state took early and extreme measures to prevent an epidemic, including sealing its borders in January 2020 and imposing severe restrictions on daily life that led many foreign diplomats and aid workers to leave the country.

Tuesday’s politburo meeting was called to “categorically address the dereliction of duty of certain senior officials in carrying out the main political tasks of the Party and the state, and to mark a new turning point in the administration staff within the Party, “KCNA reported.

At the meeting, Kim cited the “lack of capacity and irresponsibility” of officials and called for “a more fierce Party-wide campaign against ideological faults and all kinds of negative elements.”

“[Kim] has seriously underlined that the chronic irresponsibility and incompetence of the cadres currently pose artificial difficulties to the implementation of the Party’s policy and become a major obstacle which greatly hinders the development of revolutionary work, ”reported KCNA.

North Korea has faced major economic hardships from the COVID-19 pandemic after closing its borders, cutting trade by some 80% with its main partner, China.

The country also continued to struggle under years of international sanctions over its ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programs, while a series of typhoons last year caused flooding and extensive damage to buildings, roads. and cultures.

Earlier this month, Kim admitted that “the food situation is now getting tense” in North Korea due to agricultural shortages the previous year. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations recently reported that North Korea was short of 860,000 tonnes of food and warned that the situation could worsen in August.

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