Members of North Korea's umbrella trade union held an oath-taking ceremony and vowed to stamp out anti-socialist practices, state media said Sunday.

The meeting took place in Pyongyang on Saturday by participants in the General Federation of Trade Unions of Korea's 8th plenary session held earlier in the North Korean capital, according to the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). It was the union's first plenary session in about five years.

The participants "vowed to become resolute class fighters who stamp out without mercy all sorts of anti-socialist and non-socialist practices which undermine the social system, thoroughly establish the socialist lifestyle across the country and defend the political and ideological position like an impregnable fortress," the KCNA said.

On Tuesday, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sent a letter to the plenary session and called for a "do-or-die battle" against non-socialist practices.

The North has been trying to further tighten ideological discipline recently as it is under growing pressure from the fallout of global sanctions and the COVID-19 pandemic. (Yonhap)