North Korean leader Kim Jong Un continued to preside over the second day of the nation's major party meeting on its military and defense policies on Wednesday, the state media reported on Thursday, amid concerns over a potential imminent nuclear test.
At the meeting, the party discussed adding operation duties of the frontline units, modifying operation plans and restructuring key military organizational formations, Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) said, adding Kim stressed the importance of efforts to enhance the operational capabilities of the frontline units.
The meeting is being closely watched as it could provide clues on the timing of a nuclear test, which the North is seen to have been preparing for weeks. South Korean officials have said the test can come "at any time" and that the timing would be decided by Kim.
But an official at South Korea's presidential office on Wednesday said he thought North Korea could be delaying what would be its seventh nuclear test in consideration of China's political calendar and the nation's COVID-19 situation.
Kim Jong Un on Tuesday presided over the military meeting, which KCNA reported would discuss major tasks to further enhance the function and role of the military commissions at all levels as well as the military policy line and key defense policies of the party.
Last year, Kim laid out military development plans that included smaller nuclear bombs, hypersonic missiles, spy satellites, and drones.
In April, he called on the country's military to "bolster up their strength in every way to annihilate the enemy", and has tested an unprecedented number of ballistic missiles this year, including massive intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), new hypersonic missiles, and a short-range missile potentially designed for tactical nuclear weapons.
Meanwhile, North Korea has recently reported an outbreak of an unidentified intestinal epidemic in its faming region, which has been adding further strain on the isolated economy, already battling chronic food shortages and a wave of COVID-19 infections.
© Thomson Reuters 2022.
14 Comments
Login to comment
blue
Caption:
Kim: ...And then (giggles) the general says to the soldier: don't worry about nuclear fallout form the test (giggles), you'll die of starvation first. (general laughter)
Yet another day on Comedy NK Central. (yawn)
Michael Machida
OMG!
Yrral
Somebody ought to show Kim,US first strike capacity,he will not be there to feel it,it would be so swift
stormcrow
Kim is obviously more concerned about conducting nuclear tests than the coronavirus pandemic. What a guy!
OssanAmerica
Do they have any other kind of meetings in this country?
Rodney
What would you do if USA and SK continually practice and threaten to kill you and your civilians, and stave your people and prevent basic things like medicines?
stormcrow
@Rodney
It looks like Kim is already doing a pretty good job of starving his own people and scaring the hell out of them by threatening to throw any critics and their entire families into concentration camps. Dictators are good at that.
Kyo wa heiwa dayo ne
What's up with the bull head haircut ?
He looks abnormally delighted.
I do believe its a typo and meant to say - "farming region" not faming region.
A famous epidemic of the worms ?
OssanAmerica
South Korea and the US do not threaten to kill Kim and North Korean civilians. They train and conduct exercises to be ready to defend Soth Korea from another North Korean invasion, as they did in 1950. A state of war still exists, only an armistice.
The only one starving the North Korean people is the Kim regime, by putting 100% of their resources into their military *(Songun Policy) despite a lack of food and medicine, and refusing to abide by UN resolutions.
Kyo wa heiwa dayo ne
@OssanAmerica
The USA stopped the signing of the peace treaty between the Korea's .
Yes armistice was achieved but technically still a civil war
starpunk
Absolutely. He just lifts a finger of his hand and anybody who does rah-rah and suck up to his 'official pronouncements' gets taken outside and never seen again.
Its' Murder by Numbers. 1, 2, 3. It's as easy to learn as your A-B-C-D-E. Or whatever the Korean alphabet uses.
stormcrow
Yeah, and Kim will get food from the US and SK anytime he asks them for it, as they have always given it to him the past.
theFu
Look at South Korea and then look at North Korea. Isn't it clear who is better off, freer, and thriving?
A smart person would see that North Corea would benefit drastically by modeling their society after what is already working for South Korea. Then, eventually, they should reunite so families can hug each other again.
All for the lack of 1 dictator and 200 military leaders who appear to be very well fed in NK.
theFu
New Space Station Photos Show North Korea at Night, Cloaked in Darkness
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/pages/article/140226-north-korea-satellite-photos-darkness-energy
SK and China aren't dark. That also says much about poor choices.