North Korea will likely hold its party congress in May without foreign guests.
 
A source familiar with North Korean affairs said on Tuesday that despite Kim Yong-chol, the North’s Workers’ Party secretary in charge of inter-Korean affairs, visiting Laos and other Southeast Asian nations between February eleventh and 13th , there is no indication that North Korea will invite foreign guests to the Seventh Workers’ Party Congress set for May seventh.
 
The source said that the North appears to be losing ground in diplomacy as it is under international sanctions following its nuclear test in January.
 
A total of 177 delegates from 118 countries including China and Russia attended the Sixth Party Congress in 1980, including presidents and prime ministers. However, the North did not invite foreign guests to its Fifth Congress in 1970.