![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.38north.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Fig1-Mirim-Upd-26-0202_26-0202-Planet-scaled.jpg\")
<\/a>Figure 1. Imagery of Mirim Parade Training Ground from February 2, 2026 shows soldiers practicing marching formations, likely in preparation for the upcoming Ninth Party Congress. Image \u00a9 2026 Planet Labs, PBC cc-by-nc-sa 4.0. For media licensing options, please contact [email\u00a0protected]<\/a>.<\/p>\nThe Party Congress is the biggest event in North Korea\u2019s political calendar. In recent years, it has occurred\u00a0once every five years\u00a0and draws delegates from across the country. It is where Kim Jong Un will\u00a0disclose\u00a0a new five-year plan that sets North Korea\u2019s domestic and foreign policy agenda from now through 2031, including political, industrial, scientific, social, and military priorities.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The precise timing of\u00a0the\u00a0Congress\u00a0is still unknown.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On January 24, North Korea\u00a0reported<\/a>\u00a0that conferences of basic Party organizations and city and county Party organizations, which\u00a0constitute\u00a0the\u00a0first two phases<\/a>\u00a0of electing delegates to the Ninth Party Congress, had been held.\u00a0While\u00a0\u00a0a\u00a0conference of the WPK Central Committee Headquarters was\u00a0reported<\/a>\u00a0on January 30, no further conferences of provincial and other sectoral Party organizations, such as those of the Korean People\u2019s Army, the cabinet, and ministries have yet been announced.\u00a0<\/p>\n Party\u00a0Congresses\u00a0typically\u00a0convene<\/a>\u00a0two-to-three weeks after North Korean media reports\u00a0on city and county Party organizations\u2019 conferences. However, in recent weeks, there has been a a series of\u00a0ceremonies<\/a>\u00a0marking the completion of economic\u00a0projects\u00a0have been reported on, peppered with Kim Jong\u00a0Un\u2019s\u00a0military appearances<\/a>. If there are more economic projects to showcase or weapons to test before the Party Congress commences, the event could take longer to open.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Commercial satellite imagery from February 2 shows hundreds of soldiers practicing marching formations at the Mirim Parade Training…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5753,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[3138,3140,4725,450,4726,129,1256,3141],"class_list":["post-5752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pyongyang","tag-domestic-affairs","tag-martyn-williams","tag-mirim","tag-ninth-party-congress","tag-party-congress","tag-pyongyang","tag-rachel-minyoung-lee","tag-satellite-imagery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5752\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}