North Korea’s Workers’ Party to hold first congress in 35 years
Pyongyang (AsiaNews/Agencies) – North Korea announced today that it would convene a congress of its ruling Workers’ Party for the first time in 35 years, the party central committee’s politburo said in a statement carried by the country’s official KCNA news agency.
The statement gave no specific indication of what the congress would discuss, although it mentioned the need to “further strengthen the party . . . and enhance its leading role”, noting the Workers’ Party’s “heavy yet sacred task” of building a “thriving” nation.
The last congress was held way back in October 1980 under North Korea’s founding leader – and party supremo – Kim Il-sung. His son and successor Kim Jong-il never called a congress. Next year’s gathering will be the first for third generation Kim dynasty leader Kim Jong-un.
The decision is partly attributable to the fact that this year is the 70th anniversary of the ruling party’s founding in 1945 – a milestone marked with a massive military parade and multiple celebrations in Pyongyang earlier this month.
The Workers’ Party was originally conceived, under Soviet patronage, as a classic Communist entity guided by Marxist-Leninist ideology. For some observers, the upcoming congress will provide hints about significant political changes or leadership reshuffles in the Party.
Under Kim Il-sung, a personality cult went into overdrive in the late 1960s, with the party redefined as an expression of the leader, a situation that has not changed ever since.
When the "eternal president" died in 1994, his son Kim Jong-il instituted a “military first” policy that saw a shift in influence from party officials to the generals.
When Kim Jong-un took office in 2012 after his father’s death, he launched a purge to curb the generals’ power. Some 70 top government and party officials were eliminated, often in a gruesome and public way, to show the dictator’s power.
The most notable case involved Jang Song-taek, Kim Jong-un’s uncle and "political godfather", who was executed in December 2013 as the nation’s “worst traitor".
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