The Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), the ruling party of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), will hold a major conference on Tuesday to elect the party's highest leading body.

The conference, the first of its kind in 44 years, is to be of great influence to the country's future.

Conference of historic significance

The conference's significance can be seen from what it is described in the Charter of the Worker' s Party of Korea (WPK) issued in 1980, which says that the Central Committee of the WPK can hold a WPK conference between two national congresses.

The WPK conference can debate and make decisions on urgent issues such as the party's lines, policies, strategy, personnel changes and tactics.

Previously, the DPRK has held two such conferences -- one on March 3 to March 7, 1958 and the other on Oct. 5 to Oct. 10, 1966.

At the first WPK conference, the experience in the anti-sectarian battle in the country was summed up and issues about strengthening unity and solidarity were raised.

Besides, the conference also discussed the basic guidelines for a five-year plan to boost the national economy, and set the goal of economic development and concrete measures to achieve it, stressing that light industry and agriculture should be developed together with heavy industry.

At the second WPK conference, then DPRK leader Kim Il Sung made a speech titled the "Situation at Present and Tasks of Our Party," in which he analyzed the international situation and clarified the principles and positions of the WPK on the international socialist movement.

The conference also laid down the guidelines of paying equal attention to both economic and defense construction.

Despite on different themes, both conferences highlighted the country's economic construction.

CONFERENCE UNDER NEW SITUATION

The upcoming WPK conference is to be a meeting of significance under new domestic and international circumstances.

According to the decision announced by the Politburo of the Central Committee of the WPK on June 23, the WPK conference will elect its highest leading body, which is a timely move to reinforce and improve its function and mechanism.

Domestically, the WPK faced heavy tasks in building "a great prosperous and powerful nation," which required a strong and vigorous leading body.

Recently, the DPRK media repeatedly underlined that the country would resolve economic issues on its own.

Kim Jong Il, top leader of the DPRK, paid unofficial visits to China twice this year, respectively in May and August, during which he said the DPRK was working hard in developing its economy and improving people's living conditions.

Internationally, the DPRK is trying to create a peaceful environment for the economic construction.

At a meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao, Kim said he hoped to strengthen communication and cooperation with China, with a view to resuming the six-party talks on nuclear disarmament, mitigating the tense atmosphere on the Korean Peninsula and safeguarding peace and stability in the region.

In August, at a meeting with visiting former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, Kim Yong Nam, president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly of the DPRK, said that the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula was the teachings of the late leader Kim Il Sung, once again indicating an active signal for resuming the six-party talks.

The conference, dubbed as "an epoch-making milestone", in the country's revolution and "a glorious page" in the party's history, will indicate that the DPRK is about to enter a new age.