Kim Jong-un convenes key party meeting

Seoul, Dec 28: North Korea has kicked off a key meeting of the ruling Workers' Party to decide on "strategic and tactical policies", the country's state media said on Tuesday, amid expectations the session could unveil Pyongyang's major policy directions for the new year.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un presided over the 4th Plenary Meeting of the Workers' Party's 8th Central Committee held on Monday, according to Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

"The plenary meeting is to review the implementation of main Party and state policies for the year 2021 and discuss and decide on the strategic and tactical policies," Yonhap News Agency quoted the KCNA as saying.

The North's previous plenary meetings were held for one to four days.

The KCNA did not provide details on the plenary's agenda items, but the economy is also expected to be high on the list as the North is struggling from crippling sanctions and protracted pandemic-driven border closures

The political gathering opened as Seoul, along with Washington, has been seeking to resume nuclear diplomacy with Pyongyang that appears to have grown more insular amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

The North has remained unresponsive to US overtures for talks after the countries' no-deal Hanoi summit in 2019, demanding Washington first retract what it calls "double standards" and "hostile policy" against its regime.

Experts have said this week's gathering could come in place of the North Korean leader's annual New Year's Day address.

Kim has skipped such speeches in the past two years, opting instead to unveil key messages via major party sessions around the turn of the calendar.

Eyes are also on how the North will mark the 10th anniversary of Kim's rise to power, which falls this Thursday on the occasion of the party event.

Kim officially took the helm of the North on December 30, 2011, with the "supreme commandership of the Korean People's Army," 13 days after his father and former leader Kim Jong-il died.