North Korea suffered destruction to swaths of infrastructure from the most recent typhoon to hit the country, prompting leader Kim Jong Un to reconsider major projects planned for this year, state media reported.
Kim told a meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party of "unexpected damage” from a typhoon that hit this week, the official Korean Central News Agency reported Wednesday. It was the most recent of three typhoons since late August that have walloped a sanctions-hit economy, indicating a difficult time ahead at home for Kim while he seeks a strategy for nuclear talks with the United States.
"We are faced with the situation in which we cannot help but change the direction of our struggle after comprehensively considering the year-end tasks that were under way with the nationwide efforts,” Kim was quoted as saying.