The Sejong Institute

ej0717@sejong.org

English Abstract

North Korea hosted the eighth Congress of the Workers’ Party of Korea from January 5th to 12th. Through the party congress, the North Korean leadership consolidated the party-state system by formalizing the political path of the Kim Jong Un era, and critically analyzed the five-year national economic development strategy, and finally, proposed a new five-year economic development plan based on domestic and external circumstances. While maintaining the strategic line proposed in 2018, the Congress presented practical tasks mainly in areas that can directly affect the people's lives. The plan was established by taking the current external environment surrounding North Korea into consideration. Therefore, rather than actively improving relations to create an environment favorable for the North’s economic development as it did in the past, the North Korean regime is expected to focus more on the domestic economic construction maintaining the current situation. The South Korean government should actively seek ways to prepare momentum to resume dialogues with the North while considering these choices of North Korea.