North Korean leader Kim Jong Un underscored the need to drastically improve his nation’s ties with the outside world as he addressed a major political conference for the third consecutive day.

State media said Mr Kim also reviewed relations with rival South Korea but did not elaborate on what steps he said he wanted to take.

Observers had expected Mr Kim to use the first congress of the ruling Workers’ Party in five years to send conciliatory gestures toward Seoul and Washington as he faces deepening economic troubles at home.

In his speech on the third day of the meeting, Mr Kim “declared the general orientation and the policy stand of our party for comprehensively expanding and developing the external relations”, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said on Friday.

Mr Kim also examined relations with South Korea “as required by the prevailing situation and the changed times,” KCNA said.

The congress is the party’s top decision-making body which review past projects, lay out new priorities and reshuffle top officials.

This month’s congress was convened as Mr Kim is struggling to overcome what he calls “multiple crises” caused by an economy battered by pandemic-related border closings, a series of natural disasters and US-led sanctions.

In his opening-day speech, Mr Kim admitted his previous economic developmental plans had failed and vowed to lay out a new five-year development plan.

On the second day of the meeting, he said he would bolster his country’s military capability.

The congress comes as Mr Kim’s high-stakes nuclear diplomacy with President Donald Trump has remained stalled for about two years because of disputes over US-led sanctions on the North.

President-elect Joe Biden, who is to take office on January 20, has called Mr Kim a “thug” and is unlikely to hold any direct meeting with him unless North Korea takes serious steps toward denuclearisation.

Experts say North Korea may reach out to South Korea first to promote reconciliation mood before pushing for talks with the Biden administration.