[North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un was speaking on Friday at the end of the 4th Plenary Meeting of the 8th Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) last January 2022. (File photo by=Reuters)]

SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong-un took a commemorative photo in person with the participants of a workshop of the ruling party's propaganda officials and called for accelerated "revolution through a powerful ideological offensive," according to the country's state media Friday.
 
Apparently, Kim paid keen attention to the workshop, which opened in Pyongyang on Monday and brought together officials in the "information field" of the Workers' Party of Korea. He sent a letter to the attendees on the first day of the event and met with them for the photo session Thursday, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). He expressed "belief that the participants in the workshop would hold fast to the Juche theory of giving importance to ideology as the motive force of innovation, creation, and advance and dynamically accelerate our revolution through a powerful ideological offensive," the KCNA reported. Juche means self-reliance.

The workshop was held at a time when the Kim regime is intensifying its provocative stance, highlighted by the launch of a long-range missile last week. The North has often sought to tighten social discipline and rally internal unity in the face of growing pressure from the international community over its provocations leading to the escalation of regional tensions.