00:03this is apropos it offers a rare glimpse into the political workings of the reclusive state
00:09members of north korea's ruling workers party have been gathering in pyongyang this week where
00:15kim jong-un is pledging to boost the economy over the next five years while there's been
00:20no sign of his daughter who's emerged as kim's heir apparent the secretive leader has promoted
00:25his sister to the equivalent of a cabinet position august hackinson has the story
00:32ahead of the party congress in pyongyang kim jong-un unveiled the battery of massive nuclear
00:38capable rocket launchers under his rule north korea's nuclear arsenal has evolved from a source
00:45of global concern into what many now consider a direct and growing threat days later in a move
00:52that surprised no one kim was re-elected general secretary of the workers party he has built the
00:59revolutionary armed forces capable of coping with any threat of aggression on their own initiative
01:04and fully prepared for any form of war the congress offers a rare glimpse into the political workings
01:11of one of the world's most reclusive regimes among the first announcements the promotion of kim jong-un's
01:18powerful sister kim jo jong she moves up from vice party department director to director yo jong has
01:26played a key role shaping pyongyang's policy towards south korea and the united states analysts say her new
01:33position could give her even greater authority over foreign affairs but so far the congress has offered a few
01:40concrete signals about the regime's future foreign policy direction and notably absent kim jong-un's daughter
01:48joo ai speculation has been mounting that she's being groomed to eventually succeed her father according to
01:55media reports she has already been given a senior leadership role in north korea's missile administration
02:01if confirmed the move would place joo ai who's believed to be 13 years old at the heart of the
02:09country's
02:09strategic weapons command of more we're joined now by ramon pacheco pardo professor of international
02:17relations at king's college london thanks so much for being with us on the program ramon let's start with
02:24kim joo ai she's the only known child of the north korean leader she's believed to be 13 she's been
02:30increasingly peering alongside her father at various high profile events events and as we heard
02:36in that report it seems she's been given a particularly high profile position what more do we know about
02:44her well we know that she has been making a number of public appearances in recent years and not only
02:57that
02:57many of her appearances have been related to north korea's nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs
03:03so i think his father kim jong-un is trying to project the image that the kim family including his
03:11own daughter are the guarantors of the security of north korea through this missile and nuclear program
03:19we also believe that she has two siblings but this is not confirmed potentially two two brothers but
03:26as i said this is not confirmed so this makes us believe that for the time being she is a
03:32most likely
03:33candidate to in the future replace her father as the leader of north korea and reports in south korea
03:40suggest that she's currently the missile general director for her father what would such a job entail
03:47given the fact that she's still a very young teenager
03:52well i think at this point in time she doesn't have any sort of the decision making position
03:59she has positions or suspect in the image that she's working together with her father to protect the
04:09north korean population that she's being groomed to potentially be the future leader of north korea
04:16but i think it's extremely unlikely that she has any sort of decision making capacity at the moment
04:24because she's too young as you pointed out but also because we have seen that kim jong-un as opposed
04:31to his father has been willing to delegate to those who have expertise so even kim jong-un obviously he
04:37is the ultimate decision maker in north korea but he has been willing to be guided or at least receive
04:44the advice from experts in north korea and what do you make of the fact that kim juai doesn't appear
04:52to
04:52have made an appearance at the ruling party's congress this week does visibility equal succession
04:58when it comes to the north korean leadership it does but not necessarily during this party congress
05:08especially because kim juai is still a minor so for her to get a position in the workers party i
05:19think
05:20she would need to be an adult as we have seen throughout north korean history so i i think that
05:27this particular workers party and meeting that we are having at the moment is very much focus on
05:35domestic politics it's very much focus on the state of the economy and the new members of the party that
05:43are being appointed two positions of power and including kim jong-un's sister so that doesn't
05:48necessarily mean that his daughter has less power than she had let's say a week ago it does means that
05:55the priorities for this particular party congress are different and don't necessarily entail the
06:02succession plan and kim has promoted his sister though we do know that to the equivalent of a cabinet
06:08position does she have a chance of succeeding her brother
06:15well in north korea there's there's always a chance uh in the sense that so far we have seen three
06:22generations of the kim family uh taking office the grandfather the father and now of course kim
06:28jong-un but that doesn't mean that in the future this could change another member of the family could take
06:32office i'm certain that kim jong-un would rather have his daughter or one of the sons that we think
06:40he has take power but i do think that kim jong-un see the sister of kim jong-un see
06:48probably thinks that
06:49she has a shot at being the future leader of north korea so this could potentially happen especially we
06:56should consider that we have very limited information about how the leadership system works in north korea
07:04this is not a transparent system by a state of the imagination so potentially this could happen yes
07:11and as for the congress itself what have we learned there in terms of what kim's priorities are going to
07:16be for the next five years so far the focus has been on the economy which i think makes sense
07:24because
07:25if we look at the previous party congress five years ago it was right after the kobe 19 pandemic
07:29and the economic situation in north korea was very poor so i think it makes sense for kim jong-un
07:36to
07:36actually focus on the improvement in the economic situation of of north korea over the past uh five
07:42years but also we have seen how he's focusing uh i think implicitly on the geopolitical position of
07:51north korea which is better today than it was five years ago because of the support that it is
07:56receiving from russia especially but also the support that uh north korea is receiving from from china
08:03so so far this has been this have been the two priorities but as i said i i think it
08:08makes sense
08:08because these congresses they tend to focus more on domestic affairs not necessarily on the nuclear
08:15program for example or foreign affairs last time around kim though he did refer to the us as north
08:21korea's biggest enemy he doesn't seem to have made any explicit reference to either the us or south korea
08:27in his address to congress does that to you suggest a possible willingness to engage with washington and
08:37so i think that at the very least kim jong-un is willing to entertain this option he has a
08:43very
08:44strong relationship with brandon putin at the moment the russian leader but we know that north korea
08:49traditionally has not fully trusted russia or china so from a north korean perspective it makes sense to
08:58try to diversify diplomatic relations and this obviously could involve trying to improve relations
09:05with the trump administration with the us but also with south korea so i do think that it is a
09:12possibility that over the next year or two we'll see some sort of rapprochement between north korea
09:19and at the very least the us but at the same time we should also consider that as long as
09:24russia's
09:24invasion of ukraine continues north korea will continue to support russia's invasion and therefore
09:31kim jong-un is going to be able to rely on vladimir putin to to maintain his position in power
09:36to receive economic benefits technology transfers coming from russia and he's now entering his 15th
09:43year in power just how strong a position is he in compared to when he last convened the congress you
09:49mentioned that that had come of course just after the covid pandemic and the economy was not definitely not
09:54in a good position back then is it possible to know really how the economy is doing right now given
10:00the
10:01that it's so difficult to get verified information out of pyongyang
10:07well we do have hints that the economy is doing better there are some diplomats in pyongyang including
10:15western diplomats for example from from sweden or from poland or bulgaria who are able to report
10:22that the economic situation at least in pyongyang is getting better we do have satellite imagery
10:29that shows that trade with china trade with russia has been increasing in in recent years and we also
10:37have a handful of north korean refugees who have left the country more recently and they report that
10:44the economic situation outside of pyongyang in the provinces of the country of north korea
10:49have actually improved also north korean media acknowledge that following the coin and team
10:56pandemic the economic situation in north korean the country was not very good and this is something
11:04that we have seen changing in recent months the reporting about the north korean economy has been more
11:11positive of course we're talking about the north korean media this is from basically state propaganda but
11:16we have seen how north korean in the past has been willing to acknowledge that the economic situation
11:21was not doing well raman we'll have to leave it there for now thanks so much though for being
11:25with us on the program this evening that's raman pacheco pardo professor of international relations at
11:30king's college london
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