The North Korean leader defended in the congress of the single party in power the need to review ties with South Korea and to “expand and develop external relations in depth”, the state press reported today.
However, as has been the case since the beginning of the congress, which runs on the third day, the North Korean state media offered little context to what Kim Jong-un said in Pyongyang to delegates and the leadership of the Party of Workers.
The Rodong daily and the official North Korean news agency KCNA reported that Kim Jong-un “analyzed the issue of relations with the South as required by the current situation and changing times”, and underlined the need to “expand and develop external relations in depth ”.
Inter-Korean ties have been practically ‘frozen’ since the failure of the denuclearization summit between North Korea’s own leader and outgoing U.S. President Donald Trump in 2019.
Last year, Pyongyang went so far as to destroy the Inter-Korean liaison office built in its territory, in apparent protest against the sending of anti-regime propaganda by South Korean activists.
Several analysts said they hope that this important political meeting will serve to shed some light on the regime’s position on the nuclear program and the change of government in the United States.
However, the regime has so far chosen to remain silent about Joe Biden’s victory in the US presidential election.
The two Koreas are technically at war, since the Korean War (1950-53) ended with an armistice and not a peace treaty.
