North Korean leader Kim Jong-un returns to the state media following a meeting of the enlarged Politburo, chaired to cope with Covid-19 and the arrival of the powerful typhoon Bavi. In the midst of speculation about the state of health and the delegation of some powers to sister Kim Yo-jong to alleviate her "government stress" (according to Seoul intelligence), the leader led the meeting on Tuesday considering "the gaps in the anti-epidemic work on the malignant virus "and discussing emergency measures" to prevent damage to crops or victims "of the expected typhoon this week, KCNA reported.
The photos of the meeting, published by Rodong Sinmun, the 'voice' of the Workers' Party, showed Kim in a white summer dress, the same type worn last week, speaking at the meeting, with the inevitable cigarette. In July, Pyongyang imposed a lockdown in Kaesong, a city close to the border with the South, for fears of a suspected case of Covid-19 linked to the return of a repentant deserter. The restrictions were then lifted in early August, but there was no public confirmation of the infection. North Korea was hit again this year by heavy rains that jeopardize the already precarious harvests: Kim, in the KCNA report, defined the various tasks for the departments at the meeting, defining prevention as "crucial" to avoid victims and damage to agriculture. Kim said the effort to "prevent typhoon fatalities and minimize crop damage is an important job that can never be neglected for a moment by our party."
The leader focused on pride to awaken "the sectors of the national economy to take immediate measures to prevent damage from the typhoon". The supreme commander has participated in seven such meetings since early 2020, all dedicated to internal issues, and evaluated by observers as a way to consolidate internal unity and ease discontent, including international sanctions, the Covid-19 pandemic and, by lastly, the risk of floods. Last week, Kim made an unusual admission, citing the failure to implement the five-year economic development plan due to "serious" and "unexpected" challenges. The Workers' Party will hold its congress in January in order to develop a new five-year plan.