The Ninth Party Congress didn’t have much to say about North Korea’s economic plans for the next five years, but the details it did provide reveal a regime that sees no need for reforms despite shifting priorities, confident in its direction in the face of sanctions.

This year’s congress was shrouded in much more mystery than usual, even before it started. The regime did not reveal when the event would start until the day it began, and most of the decisions reached at the congress were not revealed until the very end, and even