The closed dictatorship of North Korea rarely airs domestic political issues.
But in a rare official outburst, dictator Kim Jong-Un is expressing anger at the country’s prime minister and several other high-ranking figures.
Kim criticizes Prime Minister Kim Tok-Hun for not doing enough when farmland was flooded along North Korea’s west coast.
Kim says Prime Minister Kim acted “like a bystander”. After inspecting flooded areas, the dictator went on the offensive:
– The administration led by Kim Tok Hun has been broken in recent years. The state’s economy is being destroyed by these day laborers with a lax attitude to work ethic, Kim said, according to state-run media company KCNA.
Foreign observers state that North Korea’s leaders have a tendency to exploit events in the country to carry out political purges, as well as to divert focus from societal problems.
The floods in North Korea have not claimed any lives, which is unusual for similar natural disasters in the country.
Assessors believe the landlocked country is hard hit by food shortages and that economic problems are being exacerbated by generally strict lockdowns imposed due to the corona pandemic.
In contrast, there are few signs of acute famine at present in North Korea of 26 million inhabitants.