North Korea's Kim vows to improve people's lives amid food crisis

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has emphasized the need to improve people's living conditions, the official Korean Central News Agency reported Monday (Oct. 11), as the nuclear-armed country has been facing the worst food crisis in over a decade.

Kim made a speech, titled "Let us further improve party work in line with the demands of the period of fresh development of socialist construction," on Sunday's 76th anniversary of the founding of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea, according to the news agency.

It is apparently the first time that Kim has delivered a speech on the party's founding anniversary since he became North Korea's supreme leader following the death of his father in 2011.

North Korea said earlier this year in a report to the United Nations that it has suffered its worst food crisis in over 10 years, with fears mounting that the nation's citizens have encountered difficulties in obtaining daily essentials.

(Source: Kyodo News)