North Korea calls outgoing year a ‘great turn, great change’

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ISTANBUL (AA) – Buoyed by the successful launch of a reconnaissance satellite and at least five intercontinental missiles, North Korea has described the outgoing year as one of “great turn and great change.”

In a report to the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea, which began a key meeting on Tuesday, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said 2023 was a “year of great turn and great change both in name and reality.”

“Democratic People’s Republic of Korea left a great trace in the glorious course of development in the efforts to improve the national power and enhance the prestige of the country,” Pyongyang-based Korea Central News Agency quoted the report tabled by Kim during the meeting.

Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is North Korea’s official name.

During the outgoing year, Pyongyang was successful in its third attempt to send a military satellite into space, which North Korea claimed sent back pictures of various US installations, including military bases and the White House.

North Korea, one of the most sanctioned countries due to its nuclear program, also launched several missiles in the waters surrounding the Korean Peninsula in what Pyongyang called a response to "provocations" by the US, South Korea, and Japan, which have held regular joint military drills in the region.

“The year 2023 … has recorded heroic annual to be immortal in the history of the country, and fully proved that the dignity of a genuine power and the fame of a strong one are on the orbit of independence, self-sustenance and self-defense advancing unyieldingly,” said the meeting

The meeting also discussed the implementation of the “five-point Party-building line in the new era, the core and innovative system and methods of Party work.”

It hailed the “attainment” of the main goals of the party’s five-year plan in the “development of national defense, new strategic weapons,” and advancement in national defense capabilities while North Korea also possessed “space reconnaissance assets.”

The meeting said North Korea achieved “12 major goals” in agriculture amid “a rare harvest.”

Besides reviewing the outgoing year’s work, including the budget, the meeting this week will discuss the “orientation of struggle and the draft state budget” the next year.

Separately, South Korea on Wednesday sanctioned eight North Korean individuals for “arms trade and cyber activities banned under international sanctions.”

Among those sanctioned is Ri Chang-ho, the chief of the North's spy agency who also heads the Reconnaissance General Bureau of North Korea, Seoul-based Yonhap News reported.