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May 7, 2016

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Damp start for rare, low-key NK congress

Source: Agencies | May 7, 2016, Saturday | Print Edition

NORTH Korea kicked off its first ruling party congress for nearly 40 years yesterday, with leader Kim Jong Un saying that “unprecedented results have been accomplished” with the “great success” of its January test of a nuclear weapon and February rocket launch of a satellite.

Kim, wearing a dark Western-style suit and grey tie, made the remarks at the opening of the seventh Workers’ Party congress in Pyongyang, according to North Korea’s state television KRT.

The congress drew thousands of selected delegates from across the country to Pyongyang for what, in theory at least, was a gathering of North Korea’s top decision-making body.

It also drew around 130 foreign journalists who were invited to cover the event but not allowed inside the venue, restricted instead to watching from a spot 200 meters away in the light drizzle that fell on the capital.

There was no live coverage on state television, which devoted its programming to archive material, films and patriotic concerts.

Kim, who was not even born when the last Workers’ Party Congress was held in 1980, opened the conclave with a keynote address which, when published, will be scrutinized for any sign of a substantive policy shift, especially on the economic front.

Analysts will also be watching for personnel changes as the 33-year-old looks to bring in a younger generation of leaders hand-picked for their loyalty.

State media previewed the event by hailing a nuclear test in January as evidence of North Korea’s “greatness and prestige as a nuclear power state.”

And the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea slammed the international community’s opposition to Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program. “Regardless of whether someone recognizes it or not, our status as a nuclear state that is armed with H-bombs cannot change,” it said in a statement.

The 1980 event was staged to crown Kim’s father Kim Jong Il as heir apparent to his own father, founding leader Kim Il Sung.

The 2016 version is being held inside the imposing April 25 Palace, whose stone facade is adorned with huge portraits of the two late leaders, along with giant red and gold ruling party banners.

While the agenda — and even the duration — of the congress remains unknown, its main objective is clearly to confirm Kim Jong Un’s status as legitimate inheritor of the Kim family’s rule which spans almost 70 years.

It may also enshrine as formal party doctrine Kim’s policy of pursuing nuclear weapons in tandem with economic development.

The North Korean capital was immaculately primped and primed for the congress, with national and Workers’ Party flags lining its streets, along with banners carrying slogans such as “Great comrades Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il will always be with us.”

Office worker Kim Hyang, 26, said that the country’s nuclear arsenal was the unavoidable product of US aggression.

“They threaten us with nuclear weapons, so if we are to defend our sovereignty, peace and security, we must have nuclear weapons,” he said.

Since Kim Jong Un took power after the death of his father in 2011, North Korea has carried out two nuclear tests and two successful space rocket launches.

Even as the international community responded with tougher sanctions, he pressed ahead with a single-minded drive for a credible nuclear deterrent tests.

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