North Korean Leader Reaffirms Arms Buildup in Party Meeting

KABUL (BNA) North Korean leader Kim Jong Un doubled down on his arms buildup in the face of what he described as an aggravating security environment as he concluded a major political conference that came as U.S. and South Korean officials say North Korea is pressing ahead with preparations for another nuclear test that could be imminent.

Kim’s comments published by North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency on Saturday didn’t include any direct criticism of the United States or rival South Korea amid a prolonged deadlock in nuclear diplomacy during the three days of discussions that wrapped up Friday.

Kim defended his accelerating weapons development as a rightful exercise of sovereign rights to self-defense and set forth further “militant tasks” to be pursued by his armed forces and military scientists, according to the agency. But the report didn’t mention any specific goals or plans regarding testing activity, including the detonation of a nuclear device.

The meeting came amid a provocative streak in missile demonstrations that jolts an old pattern of brinkmanship aimed at forcing the United States to accept the idea of North Korea as nuclear power and negotiating economic and security concessions from a position of strength.

While the United States has said it would push for additional sanctions if North Korea conducts another nuclear test, the divisions between permanent members of the U.N. Security Council make the prospects for meaningful punitive measures unclear. Russia and China this year vetoed U.S.-sponsored resolutions that would have increased sanctions, insisting Washington should focus on reviving dialogue.

Kim during the meeting said the country’s “maximum emergency” anti-virus campaign of the past month has strengthened the economic sector’s ability to cope with the virus.

Kim has rejected U.S. and South Korean offers of vaccines and other help. GAVI, the nonprofit that runs the U.N.-backed COVAX distribution program for vaccines, believes North Korea has begun administering doses given by its ally China. But the number of doses and how they were being distributed weren’t known.

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Source: Bakhtar News Agency