PYONGYANG: **rth Korea’s rain-soaked
capital was festooned on Tuesday with banners celebrating leader Kim Jong Un ahead of a ruling party congress, as rival South
Korea expressed concern that Pyongyang could conduct a
nuclear test before or during the rare event.
Flower pots lined balconies along streets that have been tidied as part of a 70-day campaign for the first Workers’ Party congress in 36 years, which starts on Friday.
At the congress, Kim is expected to declare isolated **rth
Korea a
nuclear ******* state and formally adopt his "Byongjin" policy to push simultaneously for eco**mic development and
nuclear capability.
It follows Kim’s father’s Songun, or "military first", policy and his grandfather’s Juche, the **rth’s home-grown founding ideology that combines Marxism and extreme nationalism.
"Let’s uphold Great Comrade Kim Jong Un’s Songun revolutionary leadership with patriotism!," one banner read.
Isolated **rth
Korea has conducted a ****** of ******* tests, including three failed launches of an intermediate-range missile, in the run-up to the Workers’ Party congress.
One banner in Pyongyang extolled a February rocket launch that put a satellite in space.
Overseas, however, the launch drew condemnation as a ballistic missile
test in disguise.
Kim has aggressively pursued
nuclear ******* and could be looking to a successful fifth
test this week as a crowning achievement, foreign analysts have said.
South Korean Defence Minister Han Min-koo said Pyongyang’s
nuclear test may come before or around the time of the opening of the congress.
"**rth Korea’s goal is to be internationally recognised as a
nuclear ******* state," Han told a parliamentary hearing on Tuesday. "We believe its
nuclear capability is advancing." **rth
Korea has invited foreign media to cover the congress, although journalists’ movements are closely managed and much of the country and its people remain off-limits to outsiders.
Pyongyang citizens "fervently welcomed participants of the congress who have given all their patriotic passion ...as a new generation of true warriors of Juche revolution under the leadership of dear comrade Kim Jong Un," **rth Korea’s official Rodong Sinmun newspaper said on Tuesday.
Security has been stepped up ahead of the congress. The Daily NK, a website run by defectors with sources in **rth Korea, said that since mid-April, free movement in and out of the
capital had been stopped and security personnel summoned from the provinces to step up domestic surveillance.
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