N. Korea to hold conference of 'cell secretaries' in early April: state media

North Korea will hold a conference early next month of the secretaries of "party cells," the grassroots units of the ruling Workers Party, state media reported Sunday, as the country tries to achieve goals laid out in a party congress earlier this year.

"The Secretariat of the Central Committee of the ruling party decided to convene the sixth conference of cell Secretaries to discuss and guide the affairs in prioritizing the position and role of the Party cells", the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.

It will also be about "consolidating the WPK organizationally and ideologically, as required by a new high stage of the developing revolution," the KCNA said.

Party cells refer to the party's most elementary units consisting of five to 30 people.

North Korea has been trying to achieve new economic goals that were unveiled by its leader Kim Jong-un during the eighth party congress held in January in the face of global sanctions and the prolonged campaign against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Kim has admitted to a failure in his previous economic development plan and rolled out the new five-year development scheme at the party congress, with an emphasis on self-reliance.

The planned conference also comes amid heightening tensions after Pyongyang fired two short-range ballistic missiles Thursday, in a first such test since US President Joe Biden took office.

During the eighth party congress, North Korea said it revised its party rules to hold the congress every five years and that will be also applied to the conferences of the cell secretaries and lowest-level party secretaries. (Yonhap)