BREAKING NEWS

North Korea's Kim tells China, economy a priority

By REUTERS

AUGUST 3, 2012 09:16

BEIJING/SEOUL - North Korea's new young leader has told chief backer China that his priority is to develop the decaying economy and improve living standards in one of the world's poorest states, the latest sign that he may be planning economic reforms.

Kim Jong-un, who took over the family dictatorship last December, has presented a sharply contrasting image to his austere father. He was shown most recently in public at a Pyongyang theme park with his young wife on his arm and riding a roller coaster in the company of a man reported to be a British diplomat.

"Developing the economy and improving livelihoods, so that the Korean people lead happy and civilized lives, is the goal the Korean Workers' Party is struggling towards," he was quoted by China's Xinhua news agency on Friday as telling Wang Jiarui, visiting head of the Chinese Communist Party's International Department and Beijing's key interlocutor with the North.

Though the report offered no details, there has been mounting speculation that Kim's one-party state is looking at reforms to help lift an economy dragged down by decades of mismanagement and international sanctions, and rarely far from famine.

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