North Korea’s ruling party met for five days in late December to discuss plans for the year ahead, and while reports on the plenum offered little detail about major decisions, leadership reshuffles at the event still offered a preview of Pyongyang’s priorities for the year ahead.

The meeting of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) ran for five days from Dec. 23, but in an unusual move, state media only disclosed this fact two days after its conclusion. Discussion about “work of inner-party structure” appears to have been behind this secrecy.

Leader Kim Jong