Kim Jong-un calls meeting as North Korea faces worst economic crisis since 1990s famine

As North Korean leader Kim Jong-un grapples with the toughest challenges of his nine-year rule, he is set to open a massive ruling Workers’ Party congress next month to try to muster stronger public loyalty to him and lay out new economic and foreign policies.While few question Kim’s grip on power, there is still room for things to get worse, especially if the world fails to find a quick way out of the Covid-19 crisis.That would prolong North Korea’s self-imposed lockdown and could possibly set…