N. Korea convenes year

North Korea's ruling Workers' Party holds a plenary meeting of its Central Committee to review state policies for this year and discuss those for 2024, Dec. 26. Courtesy of the Korean Central News Agency

North Korea has convened a key year-end meeting of the ruling Workers' Party with leader Kim Jong-un in attendance to discuss next year's policy direction, Pyongyang's state media said Wednesday.

Kim presided over the plenary meeting of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea the previous day to review state policies for this year and discuss those for 2024, according to the North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

Kim defined 2023 as a "year of great turn and great change" in which North Korea "left a great trace in the glorious course of development in the efforts to improve the national power and enhance the prestige of the country," the KCNA said in an English-language report.

Kim also called 2023 a "year of great importance" that witnessed "eye-opening victories and events achieved in all fields for socialist construction and the strengthening of the national power," it said.

Six major agenda items were put forth at the meeting, including the review of the implementation of state policies in 2023, the orientation of struggle in 2024 and a series of issues strengthening the party's leadership function, the KCNA said.

The meeting will continue, the KCNA said, without providing further details.

Kim is likely to deliver a major speech at the meeting to unveil the North's domestic and foreign policy directions in lieu of his New Year's Day address. Since 2020, Kim has skipped the address and has instead delivered a speech at a plenary session of the year-end party meeting. (Yonhap)