(From Reuters)
North Korea said on Wednesday its ruling Workers’ Party would hold a congress from May 6, ending its silence on the date of the first such conference in 36 years, as South Korea said another North Korean nuclear test appeared imminent.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is expected to use the congress to cement his leadership and to formally adopt his policy, known as “byongjin”, to push simultaneously for economic development and nuclear weapons capability.
North Korea’s last party congress was in 1980, before Kim was born. Kim, the third member of his family to lead the country, is believed to be 33.
Byongjin follows Kim’s father’s Songun, or “military first”, policy and his grandfather’s Juche, the North’s home-grown founding ideology that combines Marxism and extreme nationalism.
The party congress, first announced in October, will be closely watched for any new policies and for how the country will present its pursuit of nuclear-weapon capability. Read More