They mean in the metaphorical senses, and they emphasize that one needs self-reliance in lower rungs of existential realms (the self, politics etc.) before workinf up to higher ones (the economy).
DPRK is continuously bombarded with attempts to undermine the legitimacy of its regime with smuggled pro-democracy propaganda from the West in the form of leaflets and media, undermining the completion of the people's development of their political consciousness, hence Juche can't be in full productive thrust enough to fend off the external economic factor of sanctions. Similarly, I was recently neurotropically assaulted with antipsychotic drugs in a more literal attempt to dull my consciousness, rendering me incapacitated; there's an obvious analogy there.