In his first public speech since assuming power back in December, Kim Jong-un vowed to maintain his father’s “military first” policy, and then some. Speaking to the crowds assembled for a public celebration of what would have been his grandfather Kim Il-sung’s 100th birthday, the twentysomething leader said his “first, second and third” priorities are to bolster North Korea’s military.
>“Yesterday, we were a weak and small country trampled upon by big powers,” Mr. Kim said. “Today, our geopolitical location remains the same, but we are transformed into a proud political and military power and an independent people that no one can dare provoke.”
Coming in at what seems to be a distant fourth, priority-wise, is the needs of the country’s largely impoverished population, whose American food aid was recently cut off over a (failed) rocket launch:
He said he was determined to make sure that his people “will never have to tighten their belt again.” Yet he did not offer concrete economic programs, other than a vague reference to the need for an “industrial revolution.”
