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The 9th Workers' Party Congress (WPC) was held in Pyongyang on 19-25 February. The WPC is highest-level meeting of DPRK party officials and the government’s key tool to set long-term plans and policies. The 9th WPC took stock of the efforts made in the past five years against a challenging external environment, including a global pandemic, and chartered the way forward with a focus on stabilization, consolidation, and a gradual qualitative development. The 9th WPC also unveiled the new Five-Year Plan 2026-2030, covering sectors such as foreign relations, industry, agriculture, construction, military, defense, and culture. The plan aims for "gradual qualitative development" and the stabilization of the economy, with a renewed focus on the "Regional Development 20x10 Policy" which seeks to bring modern industrialization to rural areas in 20 counties annually over a decade, to improve living standards outside the capital. Priority sectors for industrial development include metallurgy, chemistry, electric power, coal, and machinery. The plan also emphasizes information technology and Artificial Intelligence. The new Five-Year Plan 2026-2030 provides an important reference for the work of the United Nations in the DPRK, including with respect to the possible preparation of a new Cooperation Framework, which would succeed and supersede the current Strategic Framework for Cooperation between the United Nations and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, should the UNCT be invited to return to Pyongyang.