North Korea’s Kim marks completion of Pyongyang housing project as key party congress nears

SEOUL, Feb 17 (Reuters) – North Korean leader Kim Jong Un announced the completion of 10,000 new homes being built in Pyongyang, state media KCNA said on Tuesday, as the country was about to hold a major party congress.

As North Korea prepares to convene the Ninth Congress of the ruling Workers’ Party in February, Kim has been touring construction sites and touting progress for the past few months; It’s the country’s largest political meeting, which evaluates performance, sets new policy goals and could bring leadership change.

On Monday, Kim led the completion ceremony of 10,000 homes in Hwasong District, ⁠Pyongyang, which reached the goal of 50,000 new homes in the metropolitan area set five years ago during the Eighth Congress, according to KCNA.

“Based on the transformational achievements made in the eighth term, the party’s Ninth Congress will set a greater goal of restoration and creation,” Kim said, according to KCNA.

Kim’s daughter Ju Ae was seen alongside her father at the completion ceremony, hugging and congratulating the new residents. Speculation is growing among analysts and South Korea’s spy agency that the teenager was being groomed to succeed as a leader.

Meanwhile, KCNA said representatives and spectators preparing to attend the upcoming party congress arrived in Pyongyang on Monday.

In the last two instances, in 2016 and 2021, the Congress started three to four days after representatives arrived in Pyongyang, according to Hong Min, an analyst at the Korea National Unification Institute in Seoul.

(Reporting by Joyce Lee; Editing by Lisa Shumaker, Ed Davies)