North Korean leader Kim Jong Un reprimanded parts of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) Primary Committees for incompetence and “defeatism”, the North’s state-run media outlets reported on Monday.

Speaking at the first Conference of Chairpersons of the Primary Committees of the WPK held in Pyongyang from December 23 to 25, Kim made a speech entitled “on strengthening the Primary Party Committees”. The North Korean leader suggested ways of improving their work after earlier “mutual criticism” on December 24.

“The primary Party committees play a role in helping members receive education on political ideas,” Lim Jae-cheon, a professor at Korea University’s North