North Korean leader Kim Jong-un convened a meeting of division- and brigade-level commanders of the entire military on May 17 and unveiled a plan to restructure military organization in order to strengthen frontline units defending the southern border, Korean Central Television reported on May 18. (Yonhap-KCTV) North Korea will convene a key plenary meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea in late June to conduct an interim review of this year’s party and state policies and discuss major tasks for the second half of the year, state media reported Monday.
The decision was made during a meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea, according to the Korean Central News Agency.
KCNA said the Second Plenary Meeting of the Ninth Central Committee of the WPK will be held “to have an interim review of the implementation of Party and state policies for 2026 and discuss the work in the second half of the year and a series of important issues.”
The report did not elaborate on the agenda items or provide a specific date for the meeting.
In recent years, North Korea has convened regular plenary meetings around June and December to review policy implementation and unveil major political, economic and military priorities.
Attention is likely to focus on whether the upcoming meeting will address Pyongyang’s policy direction toward South Korea and the United States, amid speculation over a possible visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping to North Korea.
The planned meeting also comes as North Korea pushes ahead with follow-up measures stemming from the Ninth Party Congress held in late February.
In March, Pyongyang revised its constitution to define the country’s territory as the land bordered by China and Russia to the north and South Korea to the south, and removed references to inter-Korean unification. Pyongyang formally removed language related to peaceful reunification from its constitution, codifying Kim’s “two hostile states” doctrine, which redefines inter-Korean relations as those between separate and adversarial states.
Under the current North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, plenary meetings of the party central committee have become key venues for announcing major policy directions, including economic development plans, military modernization priorities and inter-Korean policy shifts.
mkjung@heraldcorp.com