North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, at Party Congress in Pyongyang, Focuses on Economy, Skips Nukes and Missiles

SEOUL — North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un, has opened the ninth congress of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea in an atmosphere of optimism generated by his alliance with President Putin and a munitions industry that’s providing the Russians with a steady stream of artillery shells and other weaponry.As a foretaste of the power that Mr. Kim is expected to show off in a parade of military might a week or so from now, the North Korean party boss displayed new multiple-rocket launchers that the Russians badly need for their war in Ukraine. Pyongyang’s Korean Central News Agency quoted him as saying the new “focused strike weapon” had “the precision and power of tactical ballistic missile and the multiple launching functions of tubes.”Mr. Kim, who rules as party general secretary, avoided allusions to friends and foes or modern weapons, including nuclear warheads and missiles. He hinted at the country’s survival as a close ally of both Russia and China, however, when he told the 5,000 party delegates: “The position of our state was firmly consolidated as an irreversible one, bringing about a great change in the global political landscape and in the influence on our state.”Behind closed doors, Mr. Kim is likely to rebuke and punish those responsible for economic problems. “Serious shortcomings and negative elements, such as deep-rooted defeatism, irresponsibility, conservatism, formalism and immaturity in leadership ability, are latent at present in the work of the Party and government organs and officials,” he said. “This constitutes an artificial obstacle to the work of our party and state.” Despite the emphasis on the economy, Mr. Kim was not expected to put off the topic of military might for long. The South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo cited satellite images showing 12,000 North Korean troops staging “large-scale rehearsals” for the parade at Pyongyang’s international airport. Huge weapons were likely to join the parade, which was expected to be bigger than the spectacle at the eighth congress five years ago when 11,500 troops walked in lockstep by Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang.The question remains, however, how or whether Mr. Kim will choose to deal with South Korea and the South’s American ally. Mr. Kim has not responded to President Trump’s suggestion that they get together for another summit after having met three times in 2018 and 2019.Nor has he responded to pleas by South Korea’s left-leaning president, Lee Jae-myung, to see him while declaring the South an “enemy.” It’s widely reckoned that Mr. Kim won’t talk to either of them as long as they make an issue of the North’s nuclear program and call for denuclearization, which he’s long since made clear he’s not about to do.

North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, at Party Congress in Pyongyang, Focuses on Economy, Skips Nukes and Missiles

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