The eradication of so-called “anti-socialist phenomena” in North Korea is now a “life-and-death task,” the country’s ruling party daily said on Friday, warning that insidious internal forces stood to disrupt the country’s economic development.

In a special article carried on the second page of the Rodong Sinmun, writer Hong Jin Hyok warned that anti-socialist phenomena stood to be “extremely dangerous.”

Even though such phenomena might appear “trivial at first,” it said, their proliferation could have “irreparable consequences for the existence and development of the socialist country.”

“Therefore, waging a struggle against non-socialist phenomenon intensively is a very significant task on