North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, has been appointed general secretary of the Workers’ Party at the convention that today celebrates the Asian country’s only formation in Pyongyang, state news agency KCNA reported today.
The appointment was made on the sixth day of the congress (held on Sunday) when the general secretariat was re-established, eliminated at the previous congress in May 2016, in which Kim herself was appointed chairman of the Workers’ Party.
The leader’s sister, Kim Yo-young, for her part, is not included in the list of deputy members of the party’s political bureau.
In turn, Jo Yong-won, deputy director of the party’s powerful Organization and Orientation branch and considered one of Kim Jong-un’s own close aides, has been elected to the presidency of the political bureau, the main decision-making body of the match, replacing Pak Pong-ju.
Jo thus becomes one of the five most powerful figures at the top of the regime, along with the four other members of the presidium to date: Kim Jong-un himself, Choi Ryong-hae, Ri Pyong-chol and Kim Tok-hun.
In addition to overhauling the organizational chart, the Workers’ Party 8 Congress, whose celebration this year was surrounded by great secrecy by the regime, aims to draft a new five-year plan to boost the battered North Korean economy.
At the event, Kim Jong-un also warned that the US remains the regime’s main enemy and indirectly urged the incoming Joe Biden administration to propose new alternatives to resume the dialogue on denuclearization, warning that the North Korean army prepares new ones. testing weapons.
On the other hand, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said in a statement today that it has discovered signs of the possible Sunday night (local time) celebration of a military parade “related to Congress” in Kim Il Square. -sung from Pyongyang.
South Korean and US military authorities are closely monitoring the situation and do not rule out “the possibility that it is a trial,” the text added.
Satellite images showed the preparations for a parade that would close the convention in recent weeks, just like the previous event in 2016.
The North Korean media has not yet specified the date the congress will end, although they have reported that it will continue on Monday.