Kim opens major party meeting amid test signs North Korea
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has convened a key political conference where he is expected to review major state affairs, including the fight against Covid-19, and possibly address external relations with Washington and Seoul amid revived nuclear brinkmanship.
The official Korean Central News Agency said Kim was presiding over a plenary meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party’s Central Committee that began on Wednesday in the capital, Pyongyang, and could last several days.
The meeting comes amid signs that North Korea is pressing ahead with preparations for its first nuclear weapons test in nearly five years, which would further escalate a provocative streak in weapons demonstrations this year, with multiple tests involving intercontinental ballistic missiles.
State media previously said the meeting would review state affairs, likely including national efforts to slow a Covid-19 outbreak across a largely unvaccinated population of 26 million.
South Korean officials and experts have said Kim could use the meeting to address relations with the United States and rival South Korea amid long-stalled diplomacy, and reaffirm his ambition to build a nuclear arsenal that could viably threaten regional US allies and the American mainland.
During the previous plenary, last December, Kim repeated his vow to boost his military nuclear programme and order the production of more powerful and sophisticated weapons systems, during discussions that lasted for a record five days.
North Korea has already set an annual record for ballistic launches during the first half of 2022, firing 31 missiles over 18 launches, including its first demonstrations of ICBMs since 2017.
The unusually fast pace in testing activity underscores Kim’s dual intention to advance his arsenal and pressure the Biden Administration over long-stalled negotiations aimed at leveraging its nuclear weapons for badly needed economic benefits and security concessions, experts say.
US and South Korean officials say North Korea has all but finished preparations to detonate a nuclear device at its testing ground in the northeastern town of Punggye-ri. The site had been inactive since hosting the North’s sixth nuclear test in September 2017. Nuclear talks between the US and North Korea have been stalled since 2019.