North Korea will hold a youth congress in August, its official news agency said Tuesday, as the country continues to rally support behind leader Kim Jong-un following a recent ruling party gathering that further solidified his one-man rule of the country. 

A meeting of the central committee of the Kim Il-sung Socialist Youth League held on Monday "decided to convene the 9th Congress of the youth league in Pyongyang in the latter half of August," the North's Korean Central News Agency said.

It will be the country's first congress for the youth league, which all North Koreans are required to join from ages 14-30, after the last one was held February 1993, when the incumbent leader's grandfather and founder of the DPRK, Kim Il-sung, held power.

DPRK stands for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the North's official name.

The youth group had reportedly played a pivotal role in marshalling public support behind the inherited power of Kim Jong-il, the founder's son.

Referring to the participants of the central committee meeting on Monday, the KCNA report said "They called upon ... the youth league to greatly contribute to hastening the final victory of building a socialist power by ceaselessly creating the new myth of hero youth in the struggle to implement the tasks of the party congress."

The meeting also adopted a decision to change the title of the chairman and vice chairman of the basic youth league organizations at all levels to secretary and vice secretary.

North Korea watchers said the forthcoming convention may have been timed to come shortly after the Workers' Party of Korea congress in May so as to allow the country to drum up support from the youth so they can become the main support base for the current leader.

"The move is aimed at opening a new era for Kim Jong-un on the basis of support from the young generation," Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies, said. (Yonhap)