According to Bloomberg:
North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has doubled the number of trips he makes to factories and power stations, signaling his regime’s growing efforts to prop up a failing economy hit by United Nations sanctions.
Half of the 20 visits Kim made in January were to economic projects, more than double the four economy-related trips he made a year earlier, according to South Korea’s Unification Ministry. Kim made a total of 13 outings in January 2009.
“It clearly shows how Kim Jong Il wants to show his people his eagerness to overcome economic difficulties,” said Kim Yong Hyun, professor of North Korean studies at Dongguk University in Seoul. “He wants to tell them the leader himself will be at the forefront of improving their livelihoods, which have obviously got worse.”
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Kim, 68, braved temperatures of minus 30 degrees Celsius (minus 22 degrees Fahrenheit) to tour a power station under construction in Huichon, North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency said on Jan. 3 in reporting his first trip of the year. He visited a flour-processing factory in Pyongyang and ordered that machinery be modernized to increase production of bread, biscuits and noodles, KCNA said Jan. 23.
Kim’s “robust” activities suggest his health is not in critical condition, Unification Minister Hyun In Taek told reporters today in Seoul. Kim reportedly suffered a stroke in 2008, raising speculation last year that he may transfer power to one of his sons.
“We believe he is healthy enough to handle daily affairs,” Hyun said. “We are not concerned about his health.”
