North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has convened a key ruling party meeting to decide on steps to bolster the country’s military capability, Pyongyang said yesterday.
The meeting came amid speculation that North Korea could abandon diplomacy with the US and launch either a long-range missile or a satellite-carrying rocket if Washington does not accept its demand for new incentives to salvage faltering nuclear negotiations by year’s end.
Kim presided over a meeting of the Central Military Commission of the Workers’ Party of Korea, the Korean Central News Agency said.
Photo: AFP / KCNA via KNS
It did not say when the meeting took place.
It cited Kim as saying that the meeting would determine “important organizational and political measures and military steps to bolster up the overall armed forces ... as required by the fast-changing situation and crucial time of the developing Korean revolution.”
The meeting decided on “important military issues and measures for organizing or expanding and reorganizing new units ... [and] changing the affiliation of some units and changing deployment of [others],” it said, without elaborating.
However, South Korean media speculated that the meeting might have discussed the restructuring of military units over the deployment of new weapons that the North had test-launched in the past few months, and what steps it would take in coming weeks.
North Korea is to hold a higher-level party gathering, a Central Committee meeting, later this month to discuss what it previously described as “crucial issues” in line with “the changed situation at home and abroad.”
The White House said US President Donald Trump discussed “recent threatening statements” by North Korea in a telephone call with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
The two leaders agreed to continue close communication, it said.
Earlier this month, North Korea carried out two major tests at its long-range rocket and missile engine testing site.
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