Kim opens North Korean congress by admitting policy failures

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un opened his country’s first ruling party congress in five years with an admission that past policies had failed and vowed to set new developmental goals, state media reported Wednesday.

The Workers’ Party Congress, the party’s top decision-making body, met in Pyongyang on Tuesday to determine “a fresh line of struggle and strategic and tactical policies," with thousands of delegates and observers in attendance, the Korean Central News Agency reported.

Kim said the developmental goals set in a 2016 congress “were not met in almost all areas to a great extent," KNCA cited him as saying.

“We should further promote and expand the successes and victories that we’ve achieved through our painstaking efforts but prevent us from having the painful lessons again,” he said.

While underlining the need for a new five-year plan, Kim reviewed the present status of North Korea’s metal, chemical, electric and other key industries and set unspecified tasks for future development, according to KCNA.

This year’s congress comes as Kim faces the toughest challenge of nine-year rule because of what he has called “multiple crises” __ an economy hammered by pandemic-caused border closings, a series of natural disasters last summer and persistent U.S.-led sanctions. During Tuesday’s speech, Kim described the difficulties as “the worst of all” and “unprecedented.”

He also is likely to see U.S. policy change under President-elect Joe Biden, who unlike President Donald Trump is expected to avoid top-down summit diplomacy with him and maintain punishing sanctions on the North, unless Kim takes significant steps toward denuclearization.

Few experts doubt Kim’s grip on power. But a prolonged...