North Korea’s authoritative party daily in a rare admission on Wednesday reported that the country’s economic situation has become “very difficult,” urging citizens to enter into a “spirit of sharing difficulties.”

The article, written by staff reporter Kim Chung Song and carried in the Rodong Sinmun, an organ of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK), said North Koreans must work harder in “prioritizing national interests.”

“The country’s current economic situation is very difficult,” the article read. “There are by no means one or two insufficiencies in the process of expediting socialist economic construction.”

“Today’s era and revolution desperately wishes that every