North Korean leader Kim Jong-un reprimanded officials over “shortcomings” in regional factories, state media said Thursday, during a visit that came as part of his push on developing the economy in the North’s backward provinces.

Kim made the remarks as he gave a “field guidance” to factories that produce foodstuffs, daily necessities and paper in Kimwha County in the North’s Kangwon Province on Wednesday, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

While noting that the factories are contributing to improving the people’s lives by providing products of high quality, Kim pointed out that there are “shortcomings in the design and layout of the production process,” the KCNA said.

Kim went on to rebuke officials for failing to spot and fix such problems and pointed out that “to mechanically copy the regional industrial factories in Kimhwa County” shows the “wrong attitude” of officials in carrying out the party’s regional development policy.

His remarks were seen as warning officials in charge of eco
nomic affairs to refrain from simply following the industrial factories in Kimwha County, which has often been praised as a model case of modernizing industrial factories outside of Pyongyang.

North Korea has been stressing the importance of developing the economy in backward provinces by building modernized factories in 20 counties over the next decade to raise the “basic material and cultural living standards of the people.”

During a meeting of the political bureau of the Workers’ Party in January, Kim said the overall regional economy is in a “terrible situation” and defined the insufficient provision of basic living necessities in provincial areas as a “serious political issue.”

Kim Yo-jong, the influential sister of the North Korean leader, and Jo Yong-won, secretary for organizational affairs in the ruling Workers’ Party who was recently tapped to lead a committee on regional economic development, were among the officials that accompanied Kim, according to the KCNA.

Source: Yonhap News Agency