America's political silly season will rush toward a close with the November presidential election. Both party conventions are likely to be lively.

But these spectacles will fall short of the pageantry expected at this week's communist party congress in North Korea. For the first time since 1980, before current leader Kim Jong Un was born, the Korean Workers Party (KWP) is gathering.

The delegates are convening in Pyongyang on Friday for the first party congress in 36 years. North Koreans only just finished a 70-day campaign to prepare for the grand event. In the North, appearances are everything.