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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has hailed the country’s “great successes” as he opened a rare national party congress with a triumphalist address that highlighted the reclusive regime’s increased confidence.
The 5,000-delegate congress, which takes place every five years over several days and opened on Thursday, is Pyongyang’s biggest political event and is used to set policy goals and codify major shifts in ideology, foreign policy, economic planning and military doctrine.
The event is closely watched by foreign observers, keen for clues as to the evolution of the regime. Last week, South Korean intelligence agencies indicated that he was considering his 13-year-old daughter as his successor.
In his speech, Kim hailed the progress of the past five years, noting that at the previous congress in 2021 “the subjective and objective conditions of our revolution were literally so harsh that we could hardly maintain our own existence”.
Kim praised his regime’s “scientific” planning and said the “devoted struggle” of party members has enabled North Korea to achieve “great successes despite the severity of trials and difficulties”. Such obstacles included the “harsh blockade and sanctions” and “successive natural calamities and the global public health crisis”.
The triumphalist tone reflects what analysts say is North Korea’s strongest position in many years. The country’s provision of troops and materiel to assist Russia with its war in Ukraine has given it a powerful regional ally and financial backstop.
“If North Korea was on the defensive in the past, its geopolitical status has changed quite a lot recently,” said Koh Yu-hwan, professor emeritus at Dongguk University.
Since the congress in 2021, the regime has developed more advanced solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missiles and expanded tactical nuclear options, according to experts and North Korean watchers.
“North Korea recently displayed an almost completed hull of a nuclear submarine,” said Cheong Seong-chang of the Sejong Institute think-tank. “Russia must have given the tech needed to build it.” There is an additional push to improve conventional forces, including drones, artillery and air defences, according to experts.
On Thursday, Kim showcased a new 600mm super-precision multiple rocket launcher, presented by state media as a symbol of the country’s upgraded strike capabilities.
While GDP per capita was around US$640 in 2023, according to the UN, the economy is in better shape than it was five years ago. The South Korean central bank estimates that North Korea’s economy grew 3.1 per cent in 2023 and 3.7 per cent in 2024 after several years of stagnation.
Experts say this is largely driven by participation in the Ukraine war and international crime. “There’s obviously a lot of money coming in from exporting weapons to Russia and stealing crypto,” said Peter Ward, also of the Sejong Institute. The latter alone amounted to $2bn in 2025, according to research by Chainalysis.
Such benefits may prove transitory. If the Ukraine war ends Moscow could yet “sell North Korea down the river”, while weak security enabling cryptocurrency theft “might not last for ever”, Ward said.
One core theme of the congress is expected to be the “20×10” regional policy, in which 20 localities are to be developed each year for a period of 10 years. This is “aimed at making the provincial areas more self-sufficient, reducing . . . reliance on the central government for food rationing”, Koh said.
Kim made no reference to any desire to talk to the US. He has previously indicated he would talk to US President Donald Trump if he “dropped the absurd obsession with denuclearising us”.
Despite recent attempts by South Korea to ease tensions by calling for a no-fly zone in the demilitarised zone between the two countries and expressing willingness to restore the 2018 inter-Korean military pact, Kim will probably “continue his policy of ignoring South Korea”, according to Professor Yang Moo-jin of the University of North Korean Studies.
In recent years Kim has dropped the regime’s long-standing commitment to reunification with the South, removing references to it from the constitution and tearing down related monuments.
Kim’s daughter, Kim Ju Ae, has not yet been seen at the congress. Kim Jong Un did however mention that 413 of the delegates in attendance are women.
