Kim focuses on improving economic activity in opening speech at Ninth Congress of the Workers’ Party of Korea.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has pledged to lift living standards as he opened a rare congress of the governing Workers’ Party, held once every five years, that will see the leadership in Pyongyang set major policy goals in defence, diplomacy and the economy, state media reports.
“Today, our party is faced with heavy and urgent historic tasks of boosting economic construction and the people’s standard of living, and transforming all realms of state and social life as early as possible,” said Kim, in his opening speech at the Ninth Congress of the Workers’ Party of Korea, as reported by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
“This requires us to wage a more active and persistent struggle without allowing even a moment’s standstill or stagnation.”
For decades, nuclear weapons and military prowess came before everything else in North Korea, even as food stocks dried up and widespread famine, which Pyongyang denied existed, gripped the nation.
But since assuming power in 2011, Kim, while keeping military might as the top priority, has also stressed the need to fortify the impoverished nation’s economy.
Kim also stated on Friday that North Korea had overcome its “worst difficulties” in the last five years, and was now entering a new stage of “optimism and confidence in the future”.
South Korea’s official Yonhap News Agency said the gathering, which will last for several days, will be closely followed for any signs regarding North Korea’s development of nuclear weapons or overtures towards the administrations in Seoul and Washington, which the North considers its chief foes.
Despite a diplomatic flirtation during United States President Donald Trump’s first term in the White House, which spawned jaw-dropping spectacle summits with Kim, but ultimately delivered no substance or breakthrough, there has been no such formal outreach this time from either side. Trump’s foreign policy focus has been elsewhere, largely in the Middle East and Russia-Ukraine.
Yonhap reported that Kim made no mention of relations with either South Korea or the US in his opening speech to the congress.
South Korea sees it as a positive sign that it wasn’t mentioned in Kim’s opening speech, said Al Jazeera’s Jack Barton, reporting from Seoul.
It is probably due to the fact that the two countries have been experiencing, perhaps not “warming ties” but at least “subtle improvements” in their relationship over the past year, said Barton.
First and foremost, both the North and South have stopped their propaganda broadcasts, he added.
South Korea also “responded very quickly” following recent drone incursions into North Korea, by launching an investigation, finding the civilians responsible and reinstituting no-fly zones that also apply to South Korean military aircraft, said Barton.
All these measures earned unusual praise from Kim’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, Barton explained. North Korea has not praised actions by the South Korean government in years.
While the true state of North Korea’s often struggling economy is hard to gauge, The Associated Press news agency reports that outside experts suggest the country has seen a gradual recovery in economic activity, helped by a post-COVID boost in trade with China and the export of weapons to help Russia in its war against Ukraine.
Several thousand North Korean troops have fought on Moscow’s side against Ukraine, and Pyongyang is believed to have exported large amounts of ammunition to help the Russian invasion of its neighbour.
North Korea’s ‘biggest enemy’
South Korea’s spy agency said last week it was monitoring the congress for any sign that Kim will officially designate his teenage daughter, Kim Ju Ae, as his potential successor, formalising her position as heir apparent in a fourth-generation succession of the Kim family as North Korea’s leaders.
At the previous party congress five years ago, Kim declared that the US was his nation’s “biggest enemy”, and there is deep interest in whether the North Korean leader will soften his rhetoric – or double down – at this year’s congress, particularly amid the Trump presidency.
Trump – who met Kim in 2019 when he briefly stepped foot into North Korea to shake Kim’s hand and pose for photos – said during a tour of Asia late last year that he was “100 percent” open to meeting Kim again. So far, Kim has demurred on Trump’s overtures.
Observers of North Korean politics are reported to be scouring satellite imagery for any signs of the vast military parades that have accompanied previous congress meetings in Pyongyang.
Such parades will be closely watched for signs of a shift in North Korea’s weapons capabilities, as the country has used previous processions to show off its newest and most advanced weapons.
Kim held a ceremony on Thursday to unveil the deployment of 50 new launch vehicles for nuclear-capable short-range missiles as the congress kicked off.
According to Yonhap, the congress brings together some 5,000 party representatives from across the country, including 200 senior officials from the WPK’s headquarters. More than 4,700 officials from regional and industrial sectors are also attending.
