In Pictures: North Korea holds first ruling party congress in decades

North Korea held its first ruling party congress for nearly 40 years on Friday (May 6). The congress, which is expected to last four to five days, has largely been seen as an elaborate coronation for 33-year-old Kim Jong Un to secure his status as supreme leader and confirming his legacy “byungjin" doctrine of twin economic and nuclear development.

Updated

Published

May 09, 2016, 10:11 AM

Children wave to spectators as the curtain is brought down at the end of a performance at the Mangyongdae Children's Palace in Pyongyang.
PHOTO: REUTERS

Solar panels are seen installed on a residential building in central Pyongyang.
PHOTO: REUTERS

Morning fog blankets central Pyongyang on May 7, 2016.
PHOTO: REUTERS

People stand in front of pictures of former North Korean leaders Kim Il Sung (left) and Kim Jong Il at the main Kim Il Sung square in central Pyongyang.
PHOTO: REUTERS

Uniformed women stand outside a gate with a red star on it in central Pyongyang.
PHOTO: REUTERS

Women wearing traditional clothes wait for the train inside a subway station in central Pyongyang.
PHOTO: REUTERS

People cross the street in central Pyongyang.
PHOTO: REUTERS

Foreign reporters and their government guides follow, in newspapers and on television, the address by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) congress.
PHOTO: REUTERS

A military man stands among black Mercedes-Benz sedans, with the 727 number plates, reserved for the highest government officials, outside the People's Palace of Culture in central Pyongyang.
PHOTO: REUTERS

A new mother holds her baby as she talks via telephone on a screen to journalists at the Pyongyang Maternity Hospital during a government-organised media tour in Pyongyang.
PHOTO: AFP

A nurse tends to new-born infants in a ward at the Pyongyang Maternity Hospital during a government-organised media tour in Pyongyang.
PHOTO: AFP

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un speaks during the Workers' Party Congress in Pyongyang.
PHOTO: REUTERS

A general view shows the Workers' Party Congress in Pyongyang.
PHOTO: REUTERS

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