North Korea's Ninth Party Congress: What Happened? | The Capital Cable #130

North Korea concluded its Ninth Party Congress on February 26, wrapping up a weeklong event that outlined the country's next five-year plans across military affairs, foreign policy, and economic development. The Party Congress, one of the most significant political gatherings in the North Korean system, offered outsiders a rare window into the regime's priorities and long-term ambitions.

What actually happened at the Ninth Party Congress, and what were the most notable developments? What did Kim Jong-un say or did not say about South Korea, the United States, China, Japan and Russia? What about the status of Kim Jong-un's daughter and sister, Kim Ju-ae and Kim Yo-jong? And what to expect next for the country's WMD program?

In this episode of The Capital Cable, leading Korean experts Sydney Seiler, Ramon Pacheco Pardo and Lami Kim join Mark Lippert to unpack everything you need to know about the Ninth Party Congress.

Ramón Pacheco Pardo is Professor of International Relations at King’s College London and the KF-VUB Korea Chair at the Brussels School of Governance of Vrije Universiteit Brussel. He is also King's Regional Envoy for East and South East Asia, helping to shape and implement the university's strategy for the region.

Lami Kim is the IISS Korea Chair in Advanced Technologies, National Security and Defence at IISS. Before joining the IISS, Lami served for six years at the US Department of Defense as an associate professor and director of the Asian Studies Program at the US Army War College and a professor at the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies. She is the author of Everything but the Bomb: South Korea’s Nuclear Hedging Strategy, forthcoming from Stanford University Press.

Sydney Seiler was the national intelligence officer for North Korea at the National Intelligence Council from 2020 to 2023 and is one of the nation’s top experts on North Korea. Previously, he was the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) senior analyst and senior defense intelligence expert for North Korea from 2016 to 2020, serving as the principal adviser and senior expert on Korean Peninsula security issues to the USFK commander and the U.S. Defense Intelligence Enterprise. Mr. Seiler also served as the U.S. special envoy for Six Party Talks (2014–2015), where he coordinated U.S. diplomacy and policy on the DPRK and led negotiations with North Korea. 

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