North Korean leader Kim Jong Un admitted that decades of party policy has failed to bring economic development to the country, introducing a new plan to build industrial centers in 200 cities and counties within ten years, according to state media on Tuesday.

In a striking speech at a Supreme People’s Assembly (SPA) session the previous day, Kim said his government has offered “empty words” on rural development in the past, leading to “backward” conditions nationwide that mean not a single factory is up to standards.

He vowed to personally take responsibility for a new policy to construct “modern regional