It was not clear what specific actions were mentioned at the ruling Labor Party meeting on Sunday. However, possible state repression of such alleged acts could be an attempt to consolidate Kim’s control over his people and force them to rally behind his leadership in the face of domestic difficulties, some observers say. Kim and other senior party secretaries discussed “intensifying the fight against baseless and non-revolutionary acts, including the abuse of power and bureaucracy that has been unleashed among some party officials,” the Korean Central Command said in a statement. Kim instructed to strengthen the power of the party’s audit committee and other local disciplinary oversight systems to promote the party’s “monolithic leadership” and “the party’s broad political activities through a strong disciplinary system,” the KCNA reported. Kim has previously called for occasional struggles against “anti-socialist practices” at home over the past two years amid external concerns about his country’s fragile economy, which has been hit by pandemic-related border closures and UN sanctions. and his own mismanagement. Increased travel restrictions in the aftermath of the COVID-19 epidemic could put further pressure on the country’s economic woes, some experts say. North Korea acknowledged on May 12 that the Omicron variant of the coronavirus had infected humans, and later said that about 4.5 million people – more than 17% of its 26 million people – had contracted a fever and only 72 had died. Foreign experts widely doubt that the outbreak was the first in North Korea and believe that statistics leaked to state media are being manipulated to avoid political harm to Kim, while strengthening internal control and promoting his leadership. During a Labor party conference last week, Kim claimed that the pandemic situation had reached a stage of “serious crisis” and ordered officials to correct “deficiencies and evils in the work against the epidemic” and to take action. measures to strengthen the country’s anti-epidemic. pandemic capacity.
