N. Korea says it has achieved economic goals for H1 in key sectors

A poster encouraging North Korean people to implement the tasks set forth at a recent plenary meeting of the 8th Central Committee of the North's ruling Workers' Party is seen in this June 21 photo provided by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency. Yonhap

North Korea claimed Tuesday it has exceeded its goals across key economic sectors during the first half of the year, backed by efforts to accomplish its 12 major economic priorities for this year.

In an apparent bid to boost self-reliance amid deepening economic hardships, North Korea earlier this year identified 12 major economic goals for the year and picked raising grain output as its top task.

"Dazzling, miraculous feats were accomplished in the agriculture front," the North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said. "In the construction sector, new standards and records were incessantly created."

The KCNA said that North Korea carried out irrigation projects to prevent damage from droughts and floods, including maintenance of some 24,000 kilometers of irrigation waterways, and said that a "scientific" approach to farming will help increase production at low output farms.

The state media reported that key industrial sectors exceeded their production goals, saying that power and coal production came in at 101 percent and 104 percent of their initial goals.

Production in the metals and chemicals industries also came in at 112 percent and 102 percent of their goals, according to the KCNA.

The state media, however, did not disclose its target figures for production.

In the construction front, the KCNA noted that 13,400 new homes were built in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang, adding that major housing projects are under way in the Hwasong district of Pyongyang and the mining town of Komdok. (Yonhap)