SEOUL-- North Korea has held a Cabinet meeting to assess its economic performance for the first three months of the year and urged officials to make utmost efforts to achieve their goals "at all costs," state media reported Thursday.

At the expanded plenary meeting of the Cabinet held via video link the previous day, Vice Premier Pak Jong-gun made a report analyzing the country's economic weaknesses and flaws that dragged down the country's performance for the first quarter, according to the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

During the session, Pak called on officials to "wage a stronger battle against undesirable phenomena, including formalism and self-protectionism, in the process of implementing economic policies."

"The meeting stressed that all officials should wage a bold battle to implement the national economic plan in the first half of the year at all costs, keeping in mind that the national economic plan is an order from the party and the law of our nation," the KCNA said.

Usually, North Korea holds such an expanded plenary Cabinet meeting three to four times a year to discuss ways to implement plans presented by the Workers' Party and check related progress, a South Korean unification ministry official said.

"The meeting is usually held to deal with domestic problems, rather than sending a message to South Korea or other countries," the official told reporters on the customary condition of anonymity.

Pyongyang has held key meetings virtually amid the COVID-19 pandemic since the format was introduced for the party's Central Military Commission in June 2020, he added.

During the North's eighth party congress in January last year, its leader Kim Jong-un admitted that his five-year economic plan failed to meet the target and unveiled a new scheme focusing on self-reliance amid crippling global sanctions and a protracted border closure due to COVID-19.

Source: Yonhap News Agency