North Korea to hold important plenary in late December

Seoul, Dec 1 (EFE).- The North Korean Workers’ Party will hold an important plenary session at the end of December to review the “important challenges” it currently faces and establish its policies for 2023, state news agency KCNA reported Thursday.

In a meeting chaired by leader Kim Jong-un, the Politburo said Thursday it would convene in the sixth plenary session held since the eighth central committee of the party was established after the congress in January 2021.

The appointment will serve to “review compliance with party and state policies for the year 2022 and to discuss and determine the work plan for 2023 in addition to a series of important challenges currently presented in the course of party development and the revolution,” KCNA added.

Holding a plenary in the last days of the year is becoming commonplace under the Kim Jong-un government, which usually offers a speech to close the event that is published on Jan. 1.

These meetings were already held in December 2019 and 2021 as well (2020 was the exception, as the party called a congress for the following month.)

From this plenary, which will be the second to be held this year after the one called in June, messages could come out that can serve to understand the direction that Pyongyang wants to give its nuclear and missile program.

However, although the December 2019 plenary served to stage the break with the United States and South Korea in terms of disarmament dialogue, last year’s meeting focused on domestic policies, lacking any message addressed to Seoul and Washington. It was at the June meeting that Kim Jong-un himself called for strengthening the armed forces.

This comes at a time of great tension after Pyongyang carried out a record number of missile tests in recent weeks, which have sought to respond to the maneuvers with which Seoul and Washington usually reply to these actions, giving rise to a dangerous escalation on the peninsula.

Added to this is the possibility that the North Korean regime will soon carry out a new nuclear test, something for which it has been ready for several months, according to satellite images. EFE

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