North Korea to hold rare meeting of its communist party

SEOUL, Oct. 30 (UPI) -- North Korea is to hold a rare meeting of the ruling communist party in May that has not convened since 1980, and speculation is growing over the underlying reason for an assembly that never took place under former leader Kim Jong Il.

The call for the meeting was announced on state-controlled media network KCNA, and the official reason for the congress was a decision to "reflect the demand of the party and the developing revolution," CNN reported.

Pyongyang's decision comes a month after a South Korean analyst wrote the status and role of Pyongyang's military is changing under Kim Jong Un, and Yang Moo-jin, a professor at South Korea's University of North Korean Studies, said the decision could reflect a power shift to the Workers' Party.

"When Kim Jong Il was in power...the 'National Defense Commission' played a key-role in state affairs. The holding of the 7th Congress could symbolize that the Worker's Party's role was normalized," Yang said.

The congress, however, could mean more than a power shift. The meetings, held once or twice during every decade of Kim Il Sung's regime, usually focused on landmark decisions on economic policy.

South Korean newspaper Hankyoreh reported Kim is calling for the meeting to discuss a plan for economic growth in a North Korea that is, in many ways, undergoing a remodeling. During the reign of Kim Jong Il, the collapse of North Korea's socialist mode of planning, and the former Kim's emphasis on the military led to the indefinite suspension of the meetings. The resumption of the congress, however, could mean Kim Jong Un is ready to propose a five-year economic plan that was typically the outcome of past meetings under Kim Il Sung.

South Korean Unification Ministry spokesman Jeong Joon-hee said Seoul is "closely following" the Party Congress developments, and that South Korea expects the meeting would include a comprehensive review of North Korea's internal affairs and foreign relations.