By Joyce Lee
SEOUL, Feb 17 (Reuters) – North Korean leader Kim Jong Un marked the completion of 10,000 new houses built in Pyongyang, state media KCNA said on Tuesday, as the country prepares to hold a key party congress.
Kim has been touring construction sites and touting project progress ahead of this month’s Ninth Congress of the ruling Workers’ Party, the country’s biggest political gathering that reviews performance, sets new policy goals and can bring leadership change.
On Monday, Kim oversaw the completion ceremony for 10,000 houses in Hwasong District, Pyongyang, which achieved the goal of 50,000 new houses in the metropolitan area set during the Eighth Congress five years ago, according to state broadcaster KCNA.
“Based on the transformational achievements… during the Eighth period, the Ninth Congress of the party will set a grander goal of restoration and creation,” Kim said, according to KCNA.
Kim’s daughter Ju Ae was shown at her father’s side at the completion ceremony, hugging and congratulating the residents of the new estate. There has been increasing speculation among analysts and from South Korea’s spy agency that Kim is grooming the teenager to succeed him.
As part of their tour of the housing project, North Korean state TV showed Kim and Ju Ae also visiting an arcade game centre that looked similar to an internet cafe, a musical instrument shop and an animal hospital where they petted a puppy.
Meanwhile, KCNA said those participating in the upcoming party congress arrived in Pyongyang on Monday.
In the past two instances in 2016 and 2021, the Congress began three to four days after representatives arrived in Pyongyang, according to Hong Min, an analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul.
(Reporting by Joyce Lee and Sebin Choi; Editing by Lisa Shumaker, Ed Davies and Kate Mayberry)
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