North Korean leader Kim Jong Un capped off his 10th year in power with a speech that made more mentions of tractor factories and school uniforms than nuclear weapons or the United States, according to summaries by state media on Saturday.
North Korea's main goals for 2022 will be to jump start economic development and improve the lives of people as it faces a great life and death struggle, said Kim in a speech on Friday at the end of the 4th Plenary Meeting of the Workers' Party of Korea WPK.
The meetings coincided with the 10 year anniversary of Kim taking over the country after the death of his father in 2011.
Kim has made major policy announcements around the New Year, including launching diplomatic engagements with South Korea and the United States.
The summaries of his speech published in North Korean state media made no mention of the United States, with only a passing reference to unspecified discussions of inter-Korean relations and external affairs. The domestic focus of the speech underscored the economic problems Kim faces at home, where self-imposed anti-pandemic border lockdowns have left North Korea more isolated than ever before, with international aid organizations warning of possible food shortages and a humanitarian crisis.
Kim was quoted as saying that the main task for our Party and people next year is to give a sure guarantee for the implementation of the five-year plan and bring about a remarkable change in the state development and the people's standard of living.
Kim spent the majority of his speech detailing domestic issues from an ambitious plan for rural development to people's diets, school uniforms and the need to crack down on non-socialist practices. The focus on rural development is likely to be a populist strategy, said Chad O'Carroll, founder of NK News, a Seoul-based website that tracks North Korea.
He wrote on Twitter that Kim might be aware that revealing sophisticated military development plans might not be a good idea this year, because people are suffering food shortages and harsh conditions outside of Pyongyang.
Saturday's state media report cited the development of one ultra-modern weapon system after another as a major achievement of the past year and said Kim called for bolstering the national defence to face an unstable international situation.
Foreign analysts said that a tractor factory he discussed in the speech was likely to have been used to build launch vehicles for missiles, and North Korea is believed to have expanded its arsenal despite the lock-downs.
The United States' call for denuclearization talks or South Korea's push for a declaration to end the 1950 -- 1953 Korean War as a way to restart those negotiations did not mention in the reports of Kim's speech.
North Korea has previously said it is open to diplomacy but that the American overtures appear hollow while hostile acts such as military drills and sanctions continue.