North Korea’s Kim re-elected to steer ruling celebration at congress: Report | USAEMALL.com

For decades, nuclear weapons and military prowess came before everything else in North Korea, even as food stocks dried up and famine took hold. 

But since assuming power in 2011, Kim has stressed the need to also fortify the impoverished nation’s economy. 

At the last party congress in 2021, Kim made an extremely rare admission that mistakes had been made in “almost all areas” of economic development. 

Kim has already declared this year’s congress will unveil the next phase in the nation’s nuclear weapons programme. 

State media reported Monday that during Sunday’s session, the party also voted to revise its own rules with a view towards “consolidating the Party ranks in a qualitative way” and ensuring “impartiality in applying the Party discipline”.

It is just the ninth time the Workers’ Party congress has convened under the Kim family’s decades-long rule.

The meeting was shelved under Kim’s father Kim Jong Il, but was revived in 2016. 

Kim has spent years stoking his cult of personality in reclusive North Korea, and the congress offers another chance to demonstrate his absolute grip on power.