North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has been re-elected party general secretary at the ninth Congress of the Workers’ Party of Korea, state news agency KCNA reported on Monday.
Kim, who was first granted the title at the party’s eighth congress in 2021, was re-elected on Sunday “in accordance with the unshakable will and unanimous desire of all the delegates, millions of Party members, all the people and service personnel of the People’s Army,” the agency said.
The title puts him at the top of the country’s ruling Workers’ Party.
Kim is the third in a dynasty of the country’s rulers after his father Kim Jong Il and grandfather Kim Il Sung, who had also held the title of party general secretary.
After his father’s death in late 2011, Kim Jong Un was quickly proclaimed supreme leader of the North Korean military, the party and the state.
At the seventh party congress 10 years ago, he was elected party chairman.
At the start of the party congress, which traditionally takes place every five years, Kim said that over that period the country had overcome difficulties and undergone fundamental changes.
On Monday, KCNA cited the congress as saying that, under Kim’s rule, “the war deterrence of the country with the nuclear forces as its pivot has been radically improved.”
The agency reported that around 5,000 party cadres are attending the congress. So far, state media have released little information about the future course for the country that was decided at the party congress.
Kim is also expected to give possible indications of the expansion of Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons programme.
Observers are also looking for any signal by Kim of willingness to engage in dialogue with US President Donald Trump and South Korean President Lee Jae Myung.