North Korean leader Kim Jong-un calls for further expanding the country’s nuclear assets, according to a report carried by Pyongyang’s KCNA state media. The Korean Workers’ Party holds its second plenary meeting of the ninth central committee for three days from Saturday, with Kim presiding, as the party reviews how policies have performed in the first half of the year. The meeting also considers the agenda set at a major party congress in February.
KCNA reports that the session reaffirms North Korea’s commitment to strengthening its nuclear forces, describing them as central to the nation’s “military sovereignty” and as the key to implementing a strategy for deterring or fighting a war. The report further states that the plenary session unanimously decides that fully exercising North Korea’s position as a nuclear weapons state is the “most correct and unique way” to cope with what it describes as an increasingly complex and unpredictable international military and political environment. The state media framing also includes Kim’s stated goal of increasing nuclear capabilities “with a goal of overtaking the world.”
