N. Korea discusses light industry, state budget at party meeting

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un attending the second-day session of a year-end plenary meeting of the Central Committee of the North's ruling Workers' Party in Pyongyang, is seen in this photo released by the North's official Korean Central News Agency, Dec. 27. Yonhap

North Korea has discussed ways to develop the light industry and reviewed a state budget proposal for next year at a key party meeting, state media reported Friday.

In the third-day session of the plenary meeting of the ruling Workers' Party on Thursday, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called for "fresh innovation" in producing necessities for schoolchildren, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

Kim analyzed the party's 2023 policy on supplying quality school uniforms, bags and shoes to all students and called for enhancing the sense of responsibility in the light industry for the production of necessities for students, the report said.

Kim apparently seeks to promote the youths' welfare in a bid to create an image of a leader caring for North Koreans' lives and tighten the control on the people on the ideological front.

At the party meeting, North Korea also examined the execution of the state budget for this year and discussed a budget proposal for 2024, the KCNA said.

The Supreme People's Assembly, North Korea's rubber-stamp parliament, will confirm the state budget for next year at its meeting set for Jan. 15.

North Korea opened the year-end party meeting Tuesday to review state policies for this year and set those for 2024. The North's leader is expected to use the ongoing meeting as a venue to deliver his key messages on external ties and nuclear weapons to replace his annual New Year's Day address.

On Wednesday, Kim called for stepped-up efforts to prepare for war, saying the United States is engaged in "unprecedented" acts of confrontation against the country. (Yonhap)