Sawt Falasteen - Kim Jong Un opens rare party congress in North Korea

Leader Kim Jong Un took centre stage with a speech to start the Workers' Party congress, a gathering that directs state efforts on everything from house building to war planning.

Party elites packed the cavernous House of Culture in Pyongyang for the once-in-five-years event, which is typically capped with an immense parade flaunting the military's latest weapons.

The congress offers a rare look into the workings of a nation where even mundane details are shrouded in secrecy -- and will be closely watched for insights into Kim's long-term thinking.

Kim said North Korea had overcome its "worst difficulties" since the last congress in 2021, and was now entering a new stage of "optimism and confidence in the future".

"Today, our Party is faced with heavy and urgent historic tasks of boosting economic construction and the people's standard of living and transforming all realms of state and social life as early as possible," he said Thursday, according to state media.

He also singled out "deep-rooted defeatism" and "immaturity in leadership ability" that still hindered the party's work, a sign of possible reprisals against officials seen to have fallen short.

Kim has already declared this year's congress will lay out plans to bolster North Korea's nuclear arsenal.

It has been more than eight years since North Korea's last nuclear test triggered a man-made earthquake underneath the northern Hamyong mountains.

Pyongyang's atomic scientists have worked since then to harness this power in portable warheads that can be attached to long-range missiles.

North Korea's economy has for years languished under heavy Western sanctions that aim to choke off funding for its nuclear weapons programme.

Kim is regardless likely to boast of progress on the county's nuclear programme and "strengthened alignment with China and Russia", Yang Moo-jin, former president of the University of North Korean Studies, told AFP.

- Ruling dynasty -

It is just the ninth time the Workers' Party congress has convened under North Korea's decades-spanning Kim rule.

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

Kim Jong Un 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.

Photos released by state media showed Kim delivering his opening address as senior party officials appeared to take notes in the background.

Analysts will scour photographs to see which officials are seated closest to Kim, and who is banished to the back row.

Particular attention will be placed on the whereabouts of Kim's teenage daughter Ju Ae, who has emerged as North Korea's heir apparent according to Seoul's national intelligence service.

- 'Biggest enemy' -

The ruling parties of China and Russia -- North Korea's longtime allies -- sent friendly messages to mark the start of the congress, according to the Korean Central News Agency.

Kim appeared alongside China's Xi Jinping and Russia's Vladimir Putin at a military parade in Beijing last year -- a striking display of his powerful friends and elevated status in global politics.

At the previous congress five years ago, Kim declared that the United States was his nation's "biggest enemy".

There is keen interest in whether Kim might use the congress to soften this stance, or double down.

US President Donald Trump stepped up his courtship of Kim during a tour of Asia last year, saying he was "100 percent" open to a meeting.

Kim has so far largely shunned efforts to resume top-level diplomatic dialogue.

A.Suleiman--SF-PST