Over 100 North Korean officials have joined leader Kim Jong Un on stage at the ongoing Ninth Party Congress, a who’s who of Pyongyang elites that provides clues about regime priorities in the years ahead.

The first two rows on stage make up the Congress Presidium, the group of senior officials primarily from the Politburo that oversees the major party meeting. 

Several new faces have made an appearance compared to the last event in 2021, while also showing relative continuity with Kim’s core priorities of economic development, military modernization and reorganization of North Korea’s