Kim Jong Un, unopposed as ever, reelected as North Korea's party chief on his nuclear buildup

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was reelected as general secretary of the ruling Workers' Party at the Ninth Party Congress in Pyongyang on Sunday, with roughly 5,000 delegates ratifying a result that surprised no one . In a state where the leader holds simultaneous, near-absolute authority over party, military and government, the congress exists not to determine who leads but to perform that determination with choreographed unanimity.

Kim, 42, opened the congress with a rare domestic focus, calling on delegates to boost "the people's standard of living without allowing even a moment's standstill." The tone reflected a leader arriving in a stronger position than 2021, when he publicly admitted his economic policies had failed across "almost all areas." Since then, post-pandemic trade with China reached three billion dollars annually, arms exports to Russia have generated revenue and advanced technology, and North Korea has developed solid-fuel ICBMs, tactical nuclear weapons and its first military spy satellite. He also visited a nuclear-powered submarine construction site on Christmas Day 2025.

The congress unveiled 50 new nuclear-capable rocket launchers, reshuffled more than half the Central Committee, and is expected to formalise full integration of conventional and nuclear forces . Veteran Choe Ryong-hae vanished from the new roster entirely, signalling a generational purge of the old guard. All diplomacy with Washington remains frozen since the failed 2019 Trump-Kim summit , with Pyongyang rejecting fresh overtures unless denuclearisation is dropped as a precondition.

Yet the congress's most consequential story emerged outside the hall. South Korea's National Intelligence Service told legislators that Kim appears to have begun actively designating his daughter Kim Ju Ae , approximately 13 years, as his successor upgrading its assessment from "most likely" to a process already underway. Since her public debut at a missile test in November 2022, Ju Ae has appeared at launches, parades, a destroyer commissioning, an air force airshow and a New Year's visit to the Kumsusan Palace mausoleum , where she stood between her parents before the embalmed remains of her grandfather and great-grandfather. State media now address her with "hyangdo" - an honorific reserved for top leaders and their heirs. Reports of a son, believed born around 2010, persist, but he has never appeared publicly and Seoul says it cannot confirm his existence, so Kim Ju Ae will be his heir.

In a system built on the sacred Paektu bloodline mythology, experts say family membership ultimately outweighs gender. If so, the fourth generation of Kim family rule may, for the first time, belong to a girl who has never spoken a word in public.