North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un opened the Ninth Party Congress with a public declaration that the isolated state has emerged from a recession and achieved significant economic aims over the past five years, state media KCNA reported. The gathering, which opened on Thursday, is the country’s largest political event and is held every five years to evaluate past performance and lay out new policy objectives. It can also produce changes in leadership positions beneath the supreme commander.
In his opening address, Kim said the nation had made "significant accomplishments" during the last five-year period across multiple domains including politics, the economy, defence, culture and diplomacy, and that these advances had strengthened North Korea's self-reliance. He also told attendees that, from an external perspective, North Korea has brought a "big change" in relations with other countries and the global geopolitical landscape.
The speech did not reference relations with the United States or neighbouring South Korea, and Kim made no mention of his country’s ongoing efforts to develop a stockpile of nuclear weapons.
KCNA reported that the congress was attended by 5,000 members of the ruling Workers' Party and that a set of new goals and sectoral plans for the next five years were submitted for consideration. As part of the meeting, North Korea is expected to stage military displays, including a parade, and to announce weapons development objectives.
Observers at the congress will also be watching for possible changes in Kim’s formal titles and whether his teenage daughter, Ju Ae, will appear publicly or be assigned an official role. There has been increasing speculation, including assessments from South Korea’s spy agency and outside analysts, that Kim is preparing Ju Ae as a potential successor.
Kim reflected on the state of the country when the previous Eighth Congress met, saying conditions were "extremely challenging" at that time. He cited natural disasters and an international health crisis, an apparent reference to the COVID-19 pandemic, and said that the country’s economy and industries had been operating on outdated practices.
Official assessments cited in media accounts note that North Korea’s economy experienced its largest contraction in 23 years in 2020, a result attributed to ongoing U.N. sanctions, domestic COVID-19 lockdown measures and severe weather, according to South Korea’s central bank. More recently, there have been indicators of a rebound: estimates from the Bank of Korea put North Korea’s economic growth at 3.7% in 2024, the fastest annual pace in eight years, supported by expanded economic ties with Russia.
‘‘Everything has changed fundamentally for the past five years,’’ Kim said in his address, and he urged the party to intensify efforts to transform the country across all sectors to drive economic growth and improve people’s livelihoods "as soon as possible."
Earlier in the week, Kim presided over a ceremony marking the completion of 10,000 new apartments in Pyongyang, noting that this achievement met the housing goal of 50,000 homes set during the Eighth Congress. The duration of the Ninth Congress has not been announced; by comparison, the Seventh Congress lasted four days and the Eighth Congress ran for eight days.
The congress will serve as a focal point for official assessments of the past five years and for announcements that set the government’s agenda for the coming half-decade. Details released through KCNA describe major achievements and forward-looking plans, while the absence of references to relations with the United States or nuclear weapons underscores limits in the publicly available record of what will be prioritized or how external relations will be addressed in the near term.