SEOUL, May 10 (UPI) -- No meaningful outcome has emerged in North Korea after the Seventh Party Congress, South Korea's unification minister said Tuesday.
Speaking before a parliamentary committee, Hong Yong-pyo said the Kim Jong Un regime has no new strategy that departs from the "teachings of the departed," or the earlier generation, Yonhap reported.
During the congress that ended Monday, Kim had defended North Korea's nuclear weapons program and said the weapons would be used only if Pyongyang is "provoked."
Kim's refusal to give up weapons of mass destruction has invited condemnations from South Korean government officials, including President Park Geun-hye.
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Hong said Tuesday the congress shows the North has been unable to construct a new guiding ideology, opting instead to strengthen the idolization of past and present leaders.
"The Kim regime placed its nuclear status and consolidation of its power at the center of the congress," Hong said, adding Kim's speech proved the North has no intention of giving up its nuclear weapons
The congress also tried to repeat the events of the Sixth Party Congress, held in 1980, through the announcement of an economic plan, Hong said.
The five-year plan announced at the congress, however, did not carry substance and "only repeated existing claims," Hong said during the hearing.
The unification minister also said the North's consistent blaming of the South for tensions shows a lack of sincerity in a recent call for dialogue, and evinces a relentless "propaganda offensive."
North Korea's refusal to denuclearize was equally condemned among members of South Korea's opposition party.
Kim Gyeong-rok, spokesman for the People's Party, which split from the main opposition Minjoo party in 2016, said the North Korean announcement "throws cold water on improving inter-Korea relations," Newsis reported.
