Kim reelected to top post of North Korea’s ruling party as it hails his nuclear buildup

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was reelected to the top post of the ruling Workers' Party, with delegates crediting him for bolstering the country's nuclear arsenal and strengthening its regional standing, state media reported Monday.

The report from the party congress, where Kim is expected to outline his key political and military goals for the next five years, suggests he will double down on accelerating a military nuclear program already equipped with missiles capable of threatening Asian U.S. allies and the American mainland.

The congress, which began last Thursday, comes as Kim grows increasingly assertive in regional politics, following an aggressive expansion of his nuclear arsenal and closer ties with Russia forged through joint war efforts in Ukraine, which have deepened his standoffs with Washington and Seoul.

Analysts say Kim will likely use the meeting to unveil new military goals, including strengthening conventional forces and integrating them with nuclear capabilities, while reemphasizing a campaign for economic "self-reliance" through mass mobilization, following gradual post-pandemic gains fueled by rebounding trade with China and arms exports to Russia.

North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency said Kim was reelected as the party's general secretary with the "unshakable will and unanimous desire" of thousands of delegates on the fourth day of meetings Sunday.

Under party rules, the congress, which Kim has held every five years since 2016, elects the general secretary to serve as the party's top representative and leader. Kim, 42, has held the party's top post throughout his rule, though the title changed from first secretary to chairman at the congress in 2016 and then to general secretary at the congress in 2021.

The party said in a statement that by building up nuclear forces, Kim has created a military capable of handling "any threat of aggression" and "any form of war," and credited his leadership with "reliably guaranteeing" the country's future and "boosting the pride and self-esteem" of North Koreans.

KCNA said the congress adopted revisions to party rules during Sunday's meeting but did not immediately provide details. Experts had anticipated that Kim would use the congress to entrench his hard-line stance toward South Korea and possibly rewrite party rules to codify his characterization of inter-Korean relations as between two "hostile" states.

State media so far haven't mentioned any comments by Kim or other senior leaders at the congress directly addressing relations with Washington and Seoul.

North Korea has suspended all meaningful diplomacy with the United States and South Korea since the collapse of a 2019 summit between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump over disagreements about exchange sanctions relief for steps to wind down Kim's nuclear and missile program.

Kim's government has rejected dialogue offers from Trump since the American president began his second term, urging Washington to drop its demand for North Korea's denuclearization as a precondition for talks. Inter-Korean relations further deteriorated in 2024 when Kim abandoned the North's long-standing goal of peaceful reunification and declared the war-divided South a permanent enemy.