Mired in crises, North Korea's Kim to open big party meeting

Seoul: Coronavirus restrictions that have limited his public appearances. Warning signals for his country's fragile economy, which has been battered by pandemic-related border closings and natural disasters. The impending departure of a US president who said he fell in love with him. As North Korean leader Kim Jong Un grapples with the toughest challenges of his nine-year rule, he's set to open a massive ruling Workers' Party congress next month to try to muster stronger public loyalty to him and lay out new economic and foreign policies.

While few question Kim's grip on power, there is still room for things to get worse, especially if the world fails to find a quick way out of the COVID-19 crisis. That would prolong North Korea's self-imposed lockdown and could possibly set conditions for an economic perfect storm that destabilizes food and exchange markets and triggers panic among the public.

The congress, the first of its kind in five years, is the party's top decision-making body. At the 2016 congress, Kim put himself in front, reaffirming his commitment to developing nuclear weapons and announcing an ambitious economic development plan. Five years later, experts say Kim doesn't have many options other than to further squeeze his populace for more patience and labor.

When we get into the specifics, there's really nothing new the North could present at the congress in terms of developing its economy, said Hong Min, an analyst at Seoul's Korea Institute for National Unification. The country will continue to close its borders as long as the COVID-19 pandemic continues and the international sanctions will persist, so there's no visible room for a breakthrough.

Kim entered this year with a declaration of frontal breakthrough against punishing UN sanctions after his high-stakes diplomacy with President Donald Trump fell apart in 2019 over a US refusal to offer extensive sanctions relief in return for limited denuclearization measures. But Kim's drive faced an immediate setback.

Later in January, North Korea was forced to seal off its international borders, including one with China its biggest trading partner and aid benefactor after COVID-19 emerged there.