Portal:North Korea/Selected article/11
The 6th Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) was held in the February 8 House of Culture in Pyongyang, North Korea, from 10–14 October 1980. The congress is the highest organ of the party, and is stipulated to be held every four years. 3,062 delegates represented the party's membership; 117 foreign delegates attended the congress, without the right to speak. The congress saw the reappointment of Kim Il-sung as WPK General Secretary and the Presidium of the Politburo established as the highest organ of the party between congresses.
At this congress, Kim Il-sung designated his son Kim Jong-il as his successor. The move was criticized by the South Korean media and ruling communist parties of the socialist states in Eastern Europe and Asia because it was considered nepotist. The congress also saw the WPK and North Korea move away from orthodox communism by emphasizing the Juche idea over Marxism–Leninism, giving the party a nationalistic bent. The next party congress was not convened before 2016, despite party rules that stipulated that a congress had to be held every fifth year. (Full article...)