SEOUL, Dec 30, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has
chaired a Politburo meeting on preparations for a rare party congress in
early January, state media said Wednesday.
The congress, which is expected to set out a new economic and political
plan, will be the first such meeting in five years, and only the eighth in
North Korea’s history.
It will take place ahead of the January 20 inauguration of Joe Biden as US
president. Relations with the United States have been deadlocked since talks
between President Donald Trump and Kim stalled early last year.
Pyongyang is also under increasing financial pressure, as the coronavirus
pandemic and floods over the summer put its flagging economy under yet more
strain.
The Politburo meeting, held on Tuesday, agreed to hold the congress early
in January, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said, without
giving an exact date.
The meeting included “in-depth study and discussion on a series of
important issues” to be reviewed at the congress, it added.
North Korea has suffered from chronic economic mismanagement and a
previous plan was quietly scrapped earlier this year, with a party meeting in
August concluding that “goals for improving the national economy have been
seriously delayed”.
In October Kim ordered an 80-day nationwide drive to boost the economy
ahead of the January congress, featuring extra-long work hours and additional
duties for workers.
A similar push happened before the seventh congress in 2016, which saw a
new five-year economic plan announced, starting with a 200-day mass
mobilisation campaign.
North Korea’s economic plight has been worsened by international sanctions
imposed in response to its ballistic missile and nuclear programmes, which
have made rapid progress under Kim’s leadership.
Nuclear negotiations between Pyongyang and the Trump administration ground
to a halt after the collapse of the Hanoi summit in early 2019 over sanctions
relief.
The incoming US president has characterised Kim as a “thug”, while
Pyongyang has called Biden a “rabid dog”.
By holding the congress before he takes office, Kim “may want to pre-empt
rather than react to the Biden administration’s policies,” said Leif-Eric
Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul.
Kim’s 2016 congress was the first in North Korea in 36 years.
State media broadcast pictures of hordes of suited party cadres and
uniformed military officials descending on the capital, and the end of the
congress was marked with an enormous civilian parade.