N Korea party's congress to be held May 6

North Korea says its ruling Workers' Party congress will be held on May 6.

North Korea has announced that its ruling Workers' Party congress will open on May 6, ending its silence on the exact starting date of the first such conference in 36 years.

The plan, first announced in October, calls for a rare party conference, at which analysts expect North Korea to formally adopt leader Kim Jong Un's "byongjin" policy to simultaneously push for economic development and nuclear weapons capability.

North Korea's last party conference was held in 1980, before the birth of Kim, who is believed to be 33.

Byongjin follows Kim's father's Songun, or "military first," policy and his grandfather's Juche, the North's home-grown founding ideology of "self-reliance".

The event will be closely watched for any major policy adoptions by the isolated country, and how it will present its pursuit of nuclear weapons.

"The Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the WPK decides to open the Seventh Congress of the WPK in Pyongyang on May 6, 2016," state news agency KCNA said.

WPK stands for the Workers' Party of Korea.