NKorea says 5-day ruling party meeting is over

North Korea on Saturday said its five-day ruling party meeting was over, with leader Kim Jong Un presiding over an assessment of 2021 and setting priorities for 2022.

No verbatim text of Kim Jong Un’s speeches at the meeting has yet been published. When the meeting started, North Korean media highlighted Kim talking about 2022, and countryside development. Saturday’s initial KCNA report on the meeting continued those themes and also emphasized North Korea’s achievement in military development in 2021.

From 2013 to 2019, Kim Jong Un made recorded television addresses to the nation on New Year's Day, but in 2020 and 2021 that tradition changed to broadcast of a party meeting speech, and a letter to the people of North Korea.