North Korean authorities have selected the first 20 counties that must build new factories within this year under leader Kim Jong Un’s plan to “eliminate the centuries-old backwardness” of the country in the next decade, according to state media.

Kim admitted at a Supreme People’s Assembly session last month that North Korea is mostly undeveloped with a growing wealth gap and promised to fix the problem by building light industry factories in 20 counties and cities per year for 10 years. He called the plan the “regional development 20×10 policy.”

Provincial party chiefs have since organized “non-permanent