North Korea gears up for party congress to discuss US policy, Biden

The official Korean Central News Agency says thousands of delegates have gathered in Pyongyang, though it has not given an exact date for the event

Analysts are keeping a close watch for any signs of Kim Jong-un’s approach to negotiations over its nuclear programme with the US President-elect

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North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at the headquarters of the Party Central Committee in Pyongyang. Photo: KCNA, Reuters

Published: 2:05pm, 31 Dec 2020Updated: 8:52pm, 31 Dec 2020

Thousands of maskless North Korean delegates have gathered in Pyongyang for what appears to be the imminent eighth congress of the ruling Workers’ Party, in preparation for a meeting that will set the country’s policy direction for the next five years.

The official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said a ceremony had taken place in the capital on Wednesday to award certificates to the delegates who would take part in the congress. It did not give an exact date for the event, but in 2016 it reported the delegates’ arrival in the capital three days before the seventh congress kicked off.

Kim Jae-ryong, a former North Korean premier currently serving as the chairman of the preparatory committee, said at the ceremony that the congress “will set forth the line of struggle and strategic and tactical policies” for the party.

The participating delegates were seen without masks in photos released by the KCNA, as Pyongyang stuck to its claim that it has no confirmed Covid-19 cases – despite widespread scepticism abroad.

“Thousands of people from across the country have gathered in Pyongyang and tens of thousands others are expected to take part in various celebratory events including a military parade, a torch-carrying nighttime march, as well as a mass dance party,” Professor Yang Moo-jin at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul told This Week in Asia.

“This is a bold gesture by Pyongyang which is aimed at projecting an image abroad that the country is keeping a firm grip on the virus.”