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| North Korean leader Kim Jong-un presides over an enlarged meeting of the ruling Workers' Party's Central Military Commission in this photo from the Korean Central News Agency (KNCA), Sunday. The KNCA did not say when the meeting was held. Yonhap |
By Yi Whan-woo
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has discussed the country's defense capabilities with top military officials, Pyongyang's state-controlled Korean Central News Agency (KNCA) reported Sunday.
The enlarged meeting of the ruling Workers' Party's Central Military Commission has taken place six times since Kim took power in December 2011, with the last such meeting held in September.
The commission is the North's top military decision-making body. Security and defense sources noted that the latest meeting took place amid heightened concerns the North may be about to return to a state of confrontation with the United States.
The KNCA said Kim discussed "important organizational and political measures and military steps to bolster up" the armed forces and "gave analysis and briefing on the complicated internal and external situation."
It added, "Also discussed were important issues for decisive improvement of the overall national defense and core matters for the sustained and accelerated development of military capability for self-defense."
It did not disclose when the meeting was held or what was decided specifically. Nor did it say whether Kim discussed the stumbling denuclearization dialogue or corresponding measures.
North Korea has continued to press the U.S. for significant concessions as it approaches the year-end deadline set by Kim to salvage faltering nuclear negotiations.
For instance, Pyongyang said on Dec. 14 it carried out another "crucial test" at its long-range rocket launch site, claiming the test would further strengthen its nuclear deterrent.
The Kim regime has also repeatedly called for the Donald Trump administration to drop its "hostile policy" and warned about its "Christmas gift" as the year-end deadline looms.
This has prompted speculation that Pyongyang may be preparing for a test of an intercontinental ballistic missile that could potentially reach the U.S. mainland.
Some security experts speculated the meeting appeared to suggest the North could soon hold a plenary meeting of the party's Central Committee and scrap its self-imposed moratorium on nuclear and long-range missile tests.
The North declared the moratorium during a plenary meeting of the Central Committee in 2018 in a highly symbolic peace gesture that led to the first summit between Kim and Trump in June of the same year.
North Korea has test-fired a series of short-range projectiles since May, following the collapse of the second Kim-Trump summit in Hanoi in February.
The two sides held working-level talks in October, but little progress was made.
The U.S. has warned the North against carrying out provocations, urging Pyongyang to resume talks.
