This text is from the fourth version (January – March 2026) of 38 North’s quarterly product, North Korea Briefing, that displays key inside developments in North Korea. For the complete collection, click on right here.
Within the lead-up to the Ninth Get together Congress, Kim Jong Un criticized cadre incompetence throughout each the economic and agricultural sectors, reflecting a bent to deflect blame for the constraints of his self-reliance coverage. The Ninth Get together Congress report introduced a purpose of reaching the “total improvement of socialism” by 2035 and introduced a brand new five-year plan. The report, a abstract and never the complete textual content of Kim Jong Un’s “report” to the Get together Congress, provided no element of any new or substantive measures to enhance the economic system, addressing solely strengthened inside management, self-reliance, and mass mobilization. The next First Session of the fifteenth Supreme Folks’s Meeting (SPA) constructed on the Get together Congress’s selections by reelecting Kim Jong Un as the pinnacle of the State Affairs Fee (SAC) and adopting measures to implement the brand new five-year financial plan.
Sharp Criticism of Issues in Socialist Development Forward of the Ninth Get together Congress
Within the run-up to the Ninth Get together Congress, cadre accountability and the coverage shortcomings of Kim Jong Un’s predecessors had been introduced into sharp focus. In January and February 2026, Kim used his speeches on the inaugural ceremonies for the first-stage modernization venture of the Ryongsong Machine Advanced and the Samgwang Livestock Farm to spotlight two primary issues in socialist building: the incompetence and irresponsibility of officers, and the failures of “previous” rural insurance policies, an implicit criticism of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il.[1] He lambasted Get together and cupboard officers for defeatism, irresponsibility, passivity, and self-preservation, arguing that these attitudes had prevented work from being carried out correctly. He additionally identified that previous rural building efforts had been nothing greater than empty, unenforceable slogans.
Context and Implications
In his two speeches, Kim Jong Un raised the identical considerations throughout totally different sectors, business and agriculture, revealing that severe issues persist within the socialist building course of.
He attributed the issues of socialist building to the officers themselves, putting duty squarely on their shoulders. His criticism of the cadres displays a bent to assign blame for the constraints of his self-reliance coverage to officers quite than to his personal strategic misjudgments. References to exterior components, such because the COVID-19 border closure and UN Safety Council sanctions, or his personal strategic selections had been conspicuously restricted. This represents a traditional response aimed toward managing inside discontent and sustaining regime stability at a time when financial development is clearly constrained. Kim Jong Un’s criticism of Kim Il Sung’s and Kim Jong Il’s insurance policies can be meant to additional consolidate his absolute grip on energy.
Ninth Get together Congress’s Socialist Growth Technique and Its Limitations[2]
On the Ninth Get together Congress, North Korea set a purpose of reaching the “total improvement of socialism” by 2035 and introduced a second-stage five-year plan (2026-2030). The Get together Congress outlined the interval of the brand new five-year plan as “a part of stabilization and consolidation, a part of gradual and qualitative improvement.” It introduced the “three revolutions”—ideological, technological, and cultural—and self-reliance because the central guiding ideas for the implementation of the brand new five-year plan.[3]
Context and Implications
Based mostly on North Korea’s abstract report of Kim’s “report” to the Get together Congress, the Staff’ Get together introduced a improvement technique that depends on mass mobilization, reminiscent of tightened self-discipline and ideological work, quite than providing substantive options like working to have sanctions lifted or pursuing market-oriented measures.
Because the self-reliance line is grounded in state management, Kim Jong Un’s absolute energy and Get together-centered governance shall be additional strengthened. To start out, the Ninth Get together Congress outlined Kim Jong Un as a frontrunner (suryong) who has fulfilled century-old aspirations that the 2 earlier leaders failed to attain. Moreover, North Korea will additional strengthen the Get together by way of the five-point Get together-building program, which emphasizes Get together management and self-discipline.
In conclusion, the Get together Congress’s socialist improvement technique maintains a closed self-reliance mannequin, one which pursues financial improvement by way of strengthened inside management, self-reliance, and mass mobilization, apparently with none prospects of working towards the lifting of sanctions towards North Korea. Financial outcomes achieved by way of this technique shall be restricted. Then again, this technique, aimed toward strengthening Kim Jong Un’s energy and Get together-centered governance, is very prone to contribute to sustaining political stability in North Korea.
First Session of the fifteenth SPA Held[4]
North Korea convened the First Session of the fifteenth SPA on March 22, 2026. The SPA reelected Kim Jong Un because the chairman of the State Affairs Fee (rendered in North Korea’s official English as “president of the State Affairs”), elected state management our bodies, amended and supplemented the structure, and adopted an ordinance on implementing the brand new five-year financial plan put ahead by the Ninth Get together Congress.
Context and Implications
Reelected because the SAC chairman, the highest management place of the state, Kim Jong Un will current new strains and insurance policies whereas persevering with to criticize these of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il. Alongside these strains, North Korea will emphasize Kim Jong Un’s concepts and additional bolster his cult of persona to consolidate his absolute energy.
North Korea underscored the duty and position of the cupboard, as per Cupboard Premier Pak Thae Track’s remarks through the SPA session that socialist financial building shall be carried out below “the steering and administration by the Cupboard-Duty System, Cupboard-Centred System.” The cupboard-responsibility system is Kim Jong Un’s technique to evade accountability for financial building, that means he is not going to bear duty for financial outcomes himself however will as an alternative restrict his position to holding the cupboard accountable.
Kim Jong Un emphasised the legitimacy of his socialist building technique, which facilities on strengthening nuclear forces and the nation’s self-reliance—each conditions for interesting to the inhabitants to endure the hardships of persistent UN Safety Council sanctions, and for suppressing the discontent of cadres and the individuals.
A big change throughout the cupboard is the switch of the SEC, which oversees the protection business, below the cupboard’s jurisdiction. This seems to be an effort to put each the civilian economic system and the munitions business below the cupboard premier’s management. Nevertheless, it stays unsure whether or not the cupboard premier will be capable of successfully train management over the SEC, which had beforehand operated with relative independence. Moreover, so long as Pyongyang maintains its coverage of prioritizing the munitions business, the apply of allocating the cupboard’s restricted sources preferentially to that sector is not going to change.
In his coverage speech, Kim Jong Un put ahead measures to strengthen management over the inhabitants, together with reinforcing the bottom administrative models—the dong (neighborhood unit) and inminban (“individuals’s models”)—and establishing a police drive. On the identical time, Kim proposed measures to alleviate public discontent with the regime, instructing the dong and inminban to “remove such practices as imposing further financial burdens on the inhabitants and fostering discontent,” and calling on occasion cadres to fight abuse of energy, bureaucratism, and different anti-people practices. These measures are meant to suppress common unrest and pro-South Korea sentiment fueled by the unfold of outdoor data, in addition to discontent stemming from financial hardship below extended UN sanctions. North Korea will intensify the detection and punishment of non-socialist conduct, together with the inflow and unfold of outdoor data.
This chapter was initially drafted in Korean. The preliminary translation was produced utilizing AI instruments and subsequently reviewed word-for-word and refined by a bilingual subject-matter skilled to make sure accuracy and readability.
