KCTV, Apr. 7, 2021 | Kim Jong Un on the opening day of the Sixth Conference of Party Cell Secretaries
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un asked his ruling party to brace for hardship, evoking the name of an infamous 1990s famine that killed at least 225,000 people in the country, state media reported on Friday.
Giving a speech that closed out a conference for thousands of low-level ruling party elite, Kim reportedly told officials on Thursday to “wage another more difficult Arduous March” to help the North Korean people. “Arduous March” is a term that North Korea and the outside world used to describe a deadly famine, and it can also refer to efforts the public must make in order to survive economic hardship.
After two days of discussions on ideological unity at the Sixth Conference of Party Cell Secretaries, Kim also reportedly stressed that attendees have a “heavy” responsibility to set an example by showing their loyalty for the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK).
“I made up my mind to ask the WPK organizations at all levels … to wage another more difficult ‘Arduous March’ in order to relieve our people of the difficulty, even a little,” Kim reportedly said in his speech, which was relayed by the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
Seo Jae-pyoung, a 51-year-old North Korean defector living in Seoul who now works as the secretary-general of the Association of the North Korean defectors, characterized Kim Jong Un’s announcement as “another way of saying the country will march through trials even if it means people starve to death, like in the 1990s.”
“The term ‘Arduous March’ stands for ‘starving to death’ for normal people,” Seo said, adding that in this case it realistically suggests “food will not be supplied” by the state.
Peter Ward, a researcher on the North Korean economy and a contributing analyst to NK Pro, called the North Korean leader’s remarks “a new message” and added that the DPRK declared an official end to the Arduous March in the late 1990s.
“To resurrect the term like this to me seems pretty surprising,” he said. “And it points to obviously very serious economic problems.”
According to Ward, Kim Jong Un may also be trying to set low expectations for his people, even if conditions aren’t as bad as the 1990s famine: “It’s probably better to terrify people that life is about to get a whole lot worse, and if it doesn’t happen, you can probably take some of the credit,” he said.
Kim added in his speech on Thursday that the North Korean population should not expect “any fortuitous opportunity,” while a separate KCNA report on the closing of the conference emphasized the decades-old DPRK slogan of “self-reliance.”
Kim Jong Un also laid out “ten major tasks” for party cells and “twelve major traits which their secretaries should possess” in an extensive document published on Friday. The concrete tasks included directions for studying party directives and ideology more regularly, getting North Korea’s youth population under stronger control of the party, and fighting “anti-socialist” influences and corruption.
The remarks come after Kim told the conference in an opening speech on Tuesday that the country is currently “in the worst-ever situation” and facing “unprecedentedly numerous challenges.”
North Korea almost completely sealed its borders in early 2020 amid the breakout of the global COVID-19 pandemic, exacerbating economic difficulties the country was already experiencing due to the combination of failing domestic economic policies and international sanctions.
Edited by Kelly Kasulis. Jeongmin Kim contributed. Article last updated on April 9, 2021 at 12:25 p.m. KST.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un asked his ruling party to brace for hardship, evoking the name of an infamous 1990s famine that killed at least 225,000 people in the country, state media reported on Friday.
Giving a speech that closed out a conference for thousands of low-level ruling party elite, Kim reportedly told officials on Thursday to “wage another more difficult Arduous March” to help the North Korean people. “Arduous March” is a term that North Korea and the outside world used to describe a deadly famine, and it can also refer to efforts the public must make in order to survive economic hardship.
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Colin Zwirko is a Senior Analytic Correspondent for NK News based in Seoul. He joined the company in 2018 after receiving a master's degree in international security and foreign policy from South Korea's Yonsei University. Follow him on Twitter.