NORTH KOREA'S PESIDENT ELECTED AS RULING PARTY'S CHAIRMAN

President Xi Jinping congratulated Kim Jong Un on Monday on his election to the newly-created role of chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), the ruling party of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

The announcement of Kim’s new role was announced during the ruling party’s seventh party congress by Kim Yong Nam, President of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly. Before the congress, Kim was the first secretary of the WPK.

Xi said in a statement that the Communist Party of China and the Chinese government attach great importance to ties between the DPRK and China.

China stands ready to work with the DPRK to promote the constant development of bilateral relations for the benefit of the two countries and the two peoples, and to make positive contributions to safeguarding peace, stability and development in the region, said Xi.

The first time Kim Jong Un was hailed as “supreme leader” by DPRK state media was back in 2011 when he took power. In April 2012 he assumed the title of first chairman of the National Defense Commission. Another military title he holds is chairman of the Central Military Commission of the party.

Kim Jong Un stressed in a three-hour work report on Monday that the DPRK will hold fast to the strategic line of "Byungjin," by which the country will attach equal importance to nuclear weapons and national economy as long as the nuclear threat posed by other states continues.

Kim reiterated that the DPRK is a “nuclear weapons state”, a claim that is globally dismissed.

The congress appears to have coincided with a restructuring of the WPK’s core leadership, as new appointments were made during the first congress to be held since 1980 for the DPRK’s ruling party.

Two new members, Choe Ryong Hae and Pak Pong Ju, have been elected to join the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the WPK Central Committee, making the total number of it into five from the previous three that included Kim Jong Un, Kim Yong Nam and Hwang Pyong So, who is the director of the General Political Bureau of the Korean People's Army.

The meeting also elected nine vice chairmen of the central committee of the WPK, including Choe Ryong Hae and Kim Ki Nam, who used to be secretaries of the Secretariat.

“The vice chairmen constitute a newly-created institution under the party's central committee”, said China’s Xinhua News Agency.

The congress did not announce further details on the new secretaries of the central committee, while some who had previously held the role of secretary of the Secretariat were given new posts as vice chairmen of the party's central committee.

The ruling WPK's 7th Congress opened Friday, the first to be held in 36 years and the first party congress since Kim Jong Un took power.

Massive parades and a torch march are expected to take place Tuesday in Pyongyang to celebrate the success of the congress.