North Korea announced Wednesday it will convene a rare congress of its ruling party late next week — the first such policy-making meeting in more than three decades.

The event will be watched for signs of a possible shift in direction, although it is widely expected to cement the rule of leader Kim Jong Un.

A party congress was last held in 1980, under Kim’s grandfather, Kim Il Sung. His father, Kim Jong Il never convened one.

The Rodong Sinmun state newspaper splashed half of its front page with news of the session, which starts May 6. The Korean Central News Agency said delegates known for their “intense loyalty” and “unshakable faith” would take part.

There is speculation that the North may build on a recent flurry of nuclear weapons-related tests with similar actions to massage national pride in the run-up to the event.

On Saturday, it fired what state media called a submarine-launched ballistic missile capable of striking close to another nation’s shores.

On Tuesday, South Korean President Park Geun-hye said Pyongyang appears ready to conduct a fifth nuclear test and could pull the trigger at any time.

Also Tuesday, Yonhap News Agency reported that a road-mobile midrange missile appears to be ready for launch after an April 15 test of the same model failed when the rocket exploded.

The same day, a U.S. State Department spokesman refused to be drawn on how Washington might respond to another missile or nuclear test, but President Barack Obama told CBS News the U.S. is working to create a “shield” against the North Koreans.

He said Kim is “irresponsible enough that we don’t want them getting close.”

Obama added: “One of the things that we have been doing is spending a lot more time positioning our missile defense systems, so that even as we try to resolve the underlying problem of nuclear development inside of North Korea, we’re also setting up a shield that can at least block the relatively low-level threats that they’re posing right now.”

Calling the threats “low-level” could be more of a calculated insult than an honest appraisal of Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program.

Analysts say its four test blasts to date have shown an ability to destroy cities, even if its missiles remain unreliable.

However, they say the intensity of the North’s activities shows a determination to improve.

“It is increasingly clear a real, albeit limited, submarine missile threat from North Korea will probably emerge by the year 2020,” rocketry expert John Schilling wrote Monday on the North Korea-watching website 38 North, a project of Johns Hopkins University in Washington.