Kim Jong Un has warned North Koreans to brace themselves for hardship and isolation after making a rare public reference to the country’s devastating famine in the 1990s.
The North Korean leader, speaking to a conference of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea on Thursday, warned of “many obstacles and difficulties ahead.”
“I made up my mind to ask the WPK organisations at all levels, including its central committee, and the cell secretaries of the entire party to wage another, more difficult ‘Arduous March’ in order to relieve our people of the difficulty,” Kim said. The leader’s address, given to party cell secretaries, was reported by state media.