By Rachel Lee

North Korea spent about $1 billion (1.2 trillion South Korean won) on the seventh congress of the ruling Workers' Party, which makes up about one-sixth of the country's annual budget, a local research institute said, Sunday.

According to the IBK Economic Research Institute, Pyongyang poured about $130 million into accommodation and various events and exhibitions held during the four-day congress.

The cost for large-scale celebratory fireworks on May 10 turned out to be approximately $25 million.

Last October, the North tasked 100,000 citizens to practice for six months for a mass performance, which turned out to be a loss of about $200 million in total. The researcher also said costs for construction projects and road maintenance ahead of the congress were estimated to be $700 million.

"Considering North Korea's annual budget, which is about $7 billion, it can be said that the country has spent almost one-sixth of its money on leader Kim Jong-un's coronation ceremony," said Cho Bong-hyun, an analyst at the institute. "Kim Jong-un once again pushes ahead with the speed campaign since he failed to present any clear vision for his economy at the party's congress and instead wasted its budget to show off."

Cho added that there could be growing discontent among North Koreans since the country's budget available for the economy has dropped.

The North's speed campaign requires the highest quality of work with all resources fully remobilized to carry out projects in the shortest possible given time.

On May 6, North Korea held its seventh Workers' Party Congress, 36 years after the previous event which took place in 1980 under the rule of Kim Il-sung, the grandfather of Kim Jong-un.