May 9 (UPI) — North Korea condemned the United States in a statement that commemorated the one-year anniversary of the Seventh Party Congress.
Pyongyang’s state-controlled news agency KCNA issued a lengthy statement on the anniversary of the congress, which “took place amid great international interest” in 2016, when “revered supreme leader comrade Kim Jong Un was appointed to the highest office of chairman of the Workers’ Party, following the unified mind and wishes of the entire party, military and people.”
The chairman appointment in 2016 was a sign Kim was consolidating his power after fully assuming the leadership position in 2012.
“The U.S. imperialists and their followers have been fixated with nuclear threats and economic sanctions, while trying to take over everything of value to us. But our great and boundless military of Mount Paektu has guarded the fatherland like an impregnable fortress,” the statement on KCNA read.
The Korean Workers’ Party newspaper Rodong Sinmun issued a similar statement, while remembering the party congress as a steppingstone to “victory in building a strong socialist state.”
“As a final standoff with the United States comes into sharp focus, [Kim] has requested the army to accelerate its endless march, in order to realize the decisions reached at the seventh party congress,” the newspaper stated.
Last week Kim Jong Un visited two North Korea military units near the maritime border with the South, but the country has chosen to stay away from a major nuclear provocation in the face of increased U.S. and Chinese pressure.
