Seoul, August 20: North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has pledged to unveil a new economic development plan at a Workers' Party congress slated to be held in January 2021, state media reported on Thursday.

"The economy was not improved in the face of the sustaining severe internal and external situations and unexpected manifold challenges," the state-run Korean Central News Agency quoted Kim said as saying while reading a decision reached at a plenary meeting of the party's Central Committee held on Wednesday.

"There by planned attainment of the goals for improving the national economy have been seriously delayed and the people's living standard not been improved remarkably." Kim Jong Un Orders North Koreans to Hand Over Pet Dogs in Capital Pyongyang for Restaurant Meat Amid Food Shortages.

It is rare for the North's leader to acknowledge a policy failure, the Yonhap News Agency reported. The current development plan was adopted when the North held a previous party congress in May 2016. It is supposed to be completed by the end of this year.

"The 8th Congress would review this year's work and the work of the Central Committee of the Party in the period under review and set forth a new 5-year plan for national economic development including next year's orientation of work," the KCNA quoted Kim as saying.

Kim noted the meeting will be convened to analyze "in a comprehensive, three-dimensional and anatomical way the deviations and shortcomings" in the implementation of the decisions made at the country's previous party congress.

North Korea earlier aimed to complete major targets of the five-year economic development plan by Octpber 10 to mark the 75th party founding anniversary, but Pyongyang appears to have shifted its priority to anti-virus efforts and restoration of flood-hit areas. Kim Jong Un Death Hoax: Is North Korea's Supreme Leader Dead? Photoshopped Image of Kim Jong Il's Funeral Goes Viral.

Kim told a politburo meeting last week that flood damage rehabilitation and restoration of living conditions should be carried out as "an important political work for celebrating the 75th birth anniversary of the Party as a genuine holiday of the people and a revolutionary holiday", reports Yonhap News Agency.

Wednesday's meeting was held for the first time after eight months since the North convened a rare multi-day plenary party meeting in late December.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 20, 2020 03:26 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).