(Newswire.net— October 13, 2020) — North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un said that the impact of measures put in place against the pandemic, as well as international sanctions, and the impact of several typhoons all together prevented his government from improving the lives of its citizens.
During a speech at a military parade over the weekend the supreme leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-un, apologized to his fellow citizens for failing to improve their lives.
The Guardian reports that at the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Workers’ Party, which holds total power in North Korea, he first thanked thousands of soldiers for all their sacrifices, including helping to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus to this country.
The leader said he was grateful that “no North Korean is infected with the virus.” The United States and South Korea openly doubt that North Korea was entirely spared from COVID-19.
“My efforts and honesty were not enough to save our people from life’s problems,” the supreme leader said. “Our people have placed trust, as high as the sky and as deep as the sea, in me, but I have failed to always live up to it satisfactorily,” he said, according to a translation of his comments in the Korea Times. “I am really sorry about that.”
The recording of his speech shows that in front of the crying and shaken soldiers, as well as other citizens, he spoke while visibly red in the face and with a trembling voice and at one point making a movement as if he had wiped away a tear. Over the weekend, analysts in the West noticed that the military parade was held in extremely unusual conditions, for the first time at dawn, and now many of them interpret this move by Kim Jong-un as an indication that the great leader is under great pressure from his political opponents and problems in the country.
Jong-un has previously stated that 40 percent of Koreans in the North do not have enough food. In the meantime, according to various agency reports, this was further aggravated by strong floods due to a typhoon and additional strengthening of the already tight borders in order to keep the covid pandemic outside the borders of North Korea.