In the next few days—perhaps Thursday—the Korean Workers’ Party will begin its national conference, the first since 1966. The meeting, according to state media, will “mark a meaningful chapter in the history of our party.” Some reports indicate that the gathering already started on Monday, with the registration of participants.



The event, the third in the history of North Korea, is the result of a national mass mobilization. South Korean sources say military units have been converging on Pyongyang, presumably to take part in a show of might. China’s Xinhua News Agency has issued dispatches about rehearsals in the North Korean capital for a grand celebration, with participants waving red and pink plastic flowers.



In all probability, the party conference will coincide with Thursday’s celebration of the sixty-second anniversary of the founding of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, as North Korea formally calls itself. As such, the event looks like it has been scheduled to boost the legitimacy of Kim-family rule.



Kim Il-Sung founded the North Korean state, and power passed to his son, Kim Jong-Il, upon his sudden death in 1994. Kim Jong-Il is at this moment readying the succession to his youngest acknowledged son, Kim Jong-Un. We don’t know much about the dictator-in-waiting except that he is in his late twenties, went to private school in Switzerland, loves Eric Clapton’s music, and is as chubby and ruthless as his dad.

