North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has urged "a devoted forced march for the people" and their ideological education in his speech concluding a three-day conference of the ruling Workers' Party, state media said Tuesday.

Kim made the appeal Monday during an address for the closure of the 2nd Conference of Secretaries of Primary Committees of the Workers' Party of Korea held in Pyongyang, the North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.

The conference, the first since late 2016, opened Saturday, as the North tries to tighten discipline and unity among party ranks amid economic woes aggravated by international sanctions and pandemic-driven restrictions.

The conference reviewed the past five years of work of the primary party organizations.

"From now on they should make a devoted forced march for the people in order to preserve the dignity and prestige of our party," the KCNA quoted Kim as saying at the closing ceremony.

Kim urged them "to be very humble before the people, regard it as their natural gift and the most worthwhile work to go through thick and thin and devotedly work to ensure the best convenience and life of the people," saying to do so constitutes the main attitude and traits required by the party.

"The party devotedly serving the people is the single reason of our party's existence, its supreme symbol and permanent nature," Kim said, adding the secretaries of the primary party committees should become the "true political workers" of the party.

The leader also urged the secretaries to "transform the ideological consciousness of people" and "turn into a reality our party's policies of promoting the people's well-being."

"Stagnation and retreat in the economic affairs can be recovered but the stagnation and retreat in the education of people would bring irrevocable consequences," Kim said, stressing the need for the work to enhance "the political and moral consciousness of people."

The leader also personally handed out certificates of citation to about 50 accomplished secretaries of primary committees during the meeting's closing ceremony. (Yonhap)