North Korean leader Kim Jong-un used his New Year’s Day address Friday to focus primarily on the importance of economic development, avoiding any explicit threats or references to his country’s nuclear weapons program.
Kim spoke of the need to “create a turnaround in economic development” and raise the living standards in the impoverished country, the official KCNA reported.
“We will continue to actively try to improve the North Korea-South Korea relations and will discuss issues regarding the [Korean] people and unification in an open-minded manner with anyone who sincerely wishes for the [Korean] people’s reconciliation, unity, peace and unification,” he said.
