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North's Kim reinforces authority in comments ahead of 80th anniversary event

Published: 09 Oct. 2025, 19:38

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un arrives for a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Beijing on Sept. 3. [AFP/YONHAP]

Amid a rain spell cast for Pyongyang on Thursday night that could move up North Korea's annual Workers' Party foundation parade, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sent a strong message of tightening the ideological control over the regime in a speech prior to the event.

Kim delivered his remarks on Wednesday during a visit to the Party Founding Museum in Pyongyang, where he gave a commemorative address, according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency on Thursday.

“It is a special honor given only to the revolutionaries who can review with invariable inheritance the secret behind the glory of the victorious 80-year course they have traversed from one century into the next,” he said. “Our Party is proud that it laid the foundations of socialism on this land in the face of manifold challenges and trials, that it is striving hard to build a powerful country, which no one would dare to provoke and that it has defended the glory of socialism, which must never be buried in history, through an indomitable struggle over the past arduous 80 years.

“I also express deep appreciation for the contribution made by the Party central leadership members present here, other leading cadres of our Party and state and all the Party organizations and officials, who are doing their utmost to perform the weighty yet honorable missions and duties entrusted to them by the Party and the revolution.”

Kim emphasized that the Party strengthened itself into a combative political leadership organization through postwar ideological struggles to establish Juche and repeated internal purges, including anti-factional campaigns

Juche is North Korea’s official state ideology, first introduced by founding leader Kim Il Sung. Often translated as “self-reliance,” it emphasizes political, economic and military independence, asserting that the Korean people must shape their own destiny without external interference.

The North Korean regime has historically cited “anti-party factional behavior” as justification to eliminate opposition during key moments in the hereditary succession from Kim Il Sung to Kim Jong-il and now Kim Jong-un.

A photo released by the official North Korean Central News Agency shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, center, on his private train in Pyongyang on Sept. 1. [EPA/YONHAP]

“Kim Jong-un’s remarks serve to reinforce the party’s absolute authority while drawing a direct line between his leadership and the regime’s founding narrative,” said Park Won-gon, professor of North Korean studies at Ewha Womans University.

Kim also called for stricter internal discipline.

“We should continue to firmly consolidate strict order and sound discipline climate within the Party, while giving precedence to the process of finding out and eliminating in time all sorts of elements and acts that undermine the Party's leadership prestige,” he said. “Our Party will accelerate the advance of the revolution, sweeping away all evil practices such as ignorance, incompetence, irresponsibility, self-protection, formalism and expediency, as well as arbitrariness, high-handedness and abuse of power which are rejected by the people and cause damage to socialism, the practices revealed among officials.”

His remarks signal a clear intent to prevent ideological drift and reinforce discipline centered on the Workers’ Party. Several high-level foreign dignitaries arrived in Pyongyang ahead of the parade.

On Thursday, Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council, led a delegation on behalf of President Vladimir Putin, according to Russian state media. Medvedev is expected to attend the parade as head of Russia’s delegation.

Chinese Premier Li Qiang, considered the country’s second-most powerful official, also arrived in Pyongyang on Thursday.

Analysts say the dispatch of top-level officials from both China and Russia highlights deepening ties among the three countries. Their presence also raises the likelihood that the joint image of North Korea, China and Russia’s leaders at Beijing’s Victory Day parade last month will be symbolically echoed in Pyongyang.

From front left: Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un arrive to attend a military parade marking the 80th anniversary of victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression in Beijing, China on Sept. 3. [EPA/YONHAP]

To Lam, general secretary of Vietnam’s Communist Party, also landed in the North on Thursday for a state visit through Saturday. He is expected to attend the parade and meet with Kim.

Lam's trip marks the first visit to North Korea by a Vietnamese top leader since 2007 and follows his four-day state visit to South Korea in August — the first by a foreign head of state since President Lee Jae Myung took office.

North Korea typically holds major military parades at midnight, as it did for the 75th Party founding anniversary in October 2020. But with rain forecast in Pyongyang from late Thursday through Friday, this year’s parade may take place earlier in the evening on Thursday.

The North has adjusted the timing of past parades due to weather, including those in 2015 and 2022. The upcoming event will be North Korea’s first military parade since September 2023, when it marked the 75th anniversary of its founding.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY SHIM SEOK-YONG [[email protected]]