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The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) said Wednesday it successfully implemented its economic development plans last year despite US-led sanctions, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported Thursday.
DPRK Premier Pak Pong Ju said this in his report to the sixth session of the 13th Supreme People's Assembly of the DPRK on Wednesday following a proposal by the DPRK’s top leader Kim Jong Un, who did not attend the meeting.
"Last year was a year of great victory in which a great progress had been made in carrying out the five-year strategy for the national economic development," he said.
"The Cabinet organized a drive for putting the nation's overall economy on a higher stage with a main emphasis put on revitalizing the production," he was quoted as saying, while noting a principle of self-support and self-sufficiency in local productions.
The achievements made last year proved that "no desperate sanctions and pressure moves of the US and its vassal forces to destroy the sovereignty of the DPRK and its rights to existence and development can ever check the progress of the Korean people," he said.
Finance Minister Ki Kwang Ho said that last year, the DPRK's state budgetary revenue plan was over-fulfilled by 1.7 percent, scoring a 4.9-percent increase in state income from the previous year.
He said 15.8 percent of the total expenditure last year was earmarked for military capabilities and 47.7 percent for economic development.
In 2018, the defense expenditure will stay at 15.9 percent of the total budget, he said.
The DPRK has also dismissed Hwang Pyong So from his post as vice chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the DPRK, according to the state news agency KCNA.
Hwang is believed to be a close confidant of Kim Jong Un. In 2014, he was named the director of the General Political Bureau of the Korean People's Army. However, he was dismissed from the important position in early February this year.
(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)
