SEOUL, Feb 8, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - North Korea's leadership will hold a party congress later this month, state media announced Sunday, in what will be the first such major gathering since 2021.

The decision was made Saturday in a meeting of top leaders of the country's ruling Workers Party of Korea (WPK), including Kim Jong Un, the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.

"The Political Bureau of the WPK Central Committee adopted with unanimous approval a decision on opening the Ninth Congress of the WPK in Pyongyang, the capital of the revolution, in late February 2026," KCNA said.

The last party congress -- the reclusive nation's eighth -- was held in January 2021.

At that gathering, Kim was named the party's General Secretary, a title previously reserved for his father and predecessor Kim Jong Il, in what analysts said was a move to reinforce his authority.

The congress is the ruling party's top gathering, a grand political set-piece that reinforces the regime's authority and can serve as a platform for announcements of policy shifts or elite personnel changes.

Since the 2021 gathering, North Korea has continued to develop its nuclear arsenal, repeatedly test-launching intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) in defiance of bans ordered by the UN Security Council.

Pyongyang has also developed deep ties with Moscow during its war in Ukraine, with North Korean soldiers sent to fight alongside Russian forces.

In 2024, the two countries signed a treaty including a mutual defence clause.