The central committee of North Korea's ruling Workers' Party of Korea has elected delegates for its upcoming congress, signaling the key event is near. This follows elections at city and county levels last week as part of preparations. South Korea's intelligence agency predicts the congress may occur in early February.
The headquarters of the Central Committee of North Korea's ruling Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) held a conference on Wednesday, and the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported Friday that delegates for the ninth party congress were elected at the meeting. The election of central committee delegates typically indicates that working-level preparations for a party congress are in the final stage, a sign that the party congress is likely to take place soon.
Last week, North Korea announced that its city and county party committees had elected representatives to meetings of lower-level provincial organizations as part of preliminary congress preparations. Given typical procedures, North Korea is expected to convene a meeting of the WPK's politburo to set the date of the impending congress after electing final delegates at province-level party representative meetings.
The once-every-five-years congress, the first since 2021, is the North's highest decision-making body and sets key policies on defense, the economy, and foreign relations for the next five years. This year's meeting comes as Seoul and Washington have repeatedly attempted to reopen dialogue with Pyongyang as part of efforts to address the North's ever-increasing nuclear and missile threats.
North Korea has warned its nuclear program will never be subject to negotiations.
