Kim lauds North Korea's economy and regional standing as major party meeting opens

The meeting will likely provide the stage for Kim to unveil his key political and military objectives and further consolidate his authoritarian grip before thousands of ruling party delegates. Some analysts say Kim could also use the congress to position his teenage daughter — believed to be named Kim Ju Ae and about 13 — as a potential successor, formalizing the regime’s fourth-generation succession.

North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency reported Friday the meeting began the previous day. It did not immediately report any direct comments from Kim on his standoffs with the United States and South Korea or his nuclear weapons program.

Brimming with confidence

Entering his 15th year in power, Kim is in a much stronger position than when he last convened the congress in 2021, when North Korea was experiencing a crippled economy worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic and the wreckage of his failed diplomacy with U.S. President Donald Trump.

Kim then made a rare admission of economic failures and issued a five-year development plan through 2025, urging economic self-reliance through mass mobilization. He doubled down on his nuclear ambitions and issued a long wish list of sophisticated weapons systems.

Kim now appears less isolated and more confident, buoyed by stronger ties with Russia and China, an extensive nuclear arsenal and what the outside world sees as a gradually improving economy.

In Thursday's speech, Kim claimed the North has made significant progress since 2021, citing economic gains and a firmer regional footing that he said marked an “irreversible” strengthening of the state’s status.

Kim has capitalized on geopolitical turmoil, using Russia’s war in Ukraine as a window to accelerate weapons development and deepen ties with Moscow, providing thousands of troops and large munitions shipments to support President Vladimir Putin’s war effort, possibly in exchange for aid and military technology.

He’s cozying up to China, joining Putin at a World War II ceremony in Beijing last September and holding his first summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in six years — events that backed his efforts to portray the North as part of a united front against Washington.

Kim’s strict information blockade obscures the full picture of North Korea's economy, which remains in a largely impoverished state after decades of policy failures and sanctions.

Still, Lee Jong-kyu, an analyst at South Korea’s Korea Development Institute, estimates the North’s economy grew roughly 10% over the last five years, benefiting from a post-pandemic rebound in trade with China and arms exports to Russia.

“The past five years might be the most productive period for North Korean leadership since the 1950s and 1960s,” said Koh Yu-hwan, former president of Seoul's Institute for National Unification. Reflecting Kim’s confidence, the new congress is unlikely to introduce major shifts in domestic policy and will continue to stress internal unity and self-reliance under another five-year economic plan, Koh said.

Bolstering both nuclear and conventional forces

North Korea has developed or tested much of the weapons Kim demanded in 2021, including solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missiles and tactical nuclear systems. The country launched its first military satellite in 2023 and has recently claimed progress in building a nuclear-propelled submarine.

After prioritizing nuclear weapons and missiles, Kim is now putting more focus on conventional systems, launching new warships, anti-air weapons and attack drones, while outlining broader plans to integrate nuclear and conventional forces. Kim’s recent comments suggest he will use the congress to emphasize the parallel development of nuclear and conventional systems under a separate five-year plan for military development.

Kim could be drawing lessons from North Korea’s involvement in the conflict in Ukraine, now a conventional war of attrition in which Russia has avoided nuclear weapons. Conventional forces could become a key area of cooperation with Russia, such as improving the North’s aging air-defense systems, experts say.

North Korea has already adopted an escalatory nuclear doctrine that authorizes preemptive strikes if the leadership is deemed under threat. By pushing for the integration of conventional and nuclear forces, Kim aims to blur the distinction between them and signal a lower threshold for nuclear use, heightening the threat to South Korea, analysts say.

Keeping distance with Seoul and Washington

Kim has shunned talks with rival South Korea since 2019, when his diplomacy with Trump collapsed over U.S.-led sanctions. Ties worsened after Kim in 2024 discarded North Korea’s long-standing goal of a peaceful unification and declared Seoul a permanent enemy.

Kim is likely to entrench his hard-line view of the South at the congress, possibly by instructing changes to party rules to codify inter-Korean relations as between “two hostile states." While South Korean President Lee Jae Myung desires engagement, it’s highly unlikely that Kim’s stance on Seoul would change anytime soon, Koh said.

It’s clear Kim no longer views Seoul as a useful middleman with Washington, but rather as an obstacle to his efforts to carve out a more assertive role in global affairs. He has also shown sensitivity to South Korean soft power, intensifying a campaign to stamp out the influence of South Korean culture at home to reinforce his family’s dynastic rule.

Kim may take a more measured approach toward Washington to preserve the possibility of future dialogue, with the long-term aim of securing U.S. sanctions relief and tacit recognition as a nuclear state. While Kim has been prioritizing Russia, it would make sense to keep his options open as Putin’s war in Ukraine could wind down, potentially making North Korea less valuable to Moscow, some analysts say.