NKorea's Kim wants better living standards, arms PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un says his people must pursue economic improvement with the same urgency scientists put into the launch of a long-range rocket last month. Last year saw plunging inter-Korean ties, the collapse of a U.S.-North Korean food-aid-for-nuclear-freeze deal and two North Korean long-range rocket launches that Washington and others called covers for banned ballistic missile tests.