NK leader empowers ‘cell secretaries’

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un gives an opening speech at a meeting of the secretaries who head the “cell” (smallest organization) of the ruling Workers’ Party in Pyongyang, Monday, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported, Tuesday. / Yonhaps

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un emphasized the importance of lower-level secretaries of the ruling Worker’s Party in a rare meeting of such officials this week, Pyongyang’s state media said Tuesday, as the young ruler attempts to gain “grassroots” support.

The North a day earlier convened the meeting of the secretaries who head the party’s smallest organizations called “cells” for the first time since 2007. It was the first time that the country’s leader has attended the gathering.

Calling the cell’s “grassroots organizations,” he said the meeting would “be an epochal turning point in increasing the party’s capability in every way as required by the new era of the Juche revolution by decisively enhancing the function and role of the party cells,” according the North’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
“Juche” refers to the North’s principle of self-reliance.

The party is “determined to make this meeting a decisive occasion of bringing about a great turn in the overall party work by … radically improving and strengthening the work of the party cells,” the report added.

Kim said the meeting was called at the behest of late leader Kim Jong-il, who died in December 2011, and who, according to the KCNA wanted the secretaries to have a bigger role in the party. The North is making preparations to celebrate the anniversary of Kim Jong-il’s birth on Feb. 16.

Analysts here said the meeting was the latest move by Kim to consolidate power while currying support for his stated goal of economic development, a theme he emphasized in a New Year’s speech.

In that speech, he called on the country to “build an economic giant” adding, “Economic undertakings for this year should be geared toward a radical increase in production, and stabilizing and improving the people’s living standards.”

The meeting of secretaries also is the latest move by Kim to emphasize the party, which has been refurbished in recent times after years of “military-first” rule.
Pyongyang has been striving to portray Kim as a capable, charismatic leader.
Earlier this week, it released photographs of him being briefed by foreign affairs and security officials in what analysts say was an attempt to demonstrate his leadership capabilities.

North Korea has also been threatening it would launch a nuclear test in the near future, prompting countries like the U.S. and Japan, in particular, to engage in missile launches in apparent bids to cope with possible provocations by the North. <The Korea Times/Kim Young-jin>