Kim holds party meeting to bolster N Korea military

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 doesn’t accept its demand for new incentives to salvage faltering nuclear negotiations by the year’s end.

Pyongyang: North Korea on Sunday said that its leader Kim Jong Un had convened a key ruling party meeting to decide on steps to bolster the country’s military capability.

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 doesn’t accept its demand for new incentives to salvage faltering nuclear negotiations by the year’s end.

The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said that Kim presided over a meeting of the Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party. But it didn't say when it took place.

It cited Kim as saying the meeting would determine “important organisational and political measures and military steps to bolster the overall armed forces ... as required by the fast-changing situation and crucial time of the developing Korean revolution."

According to KCNA, the gathering decided on “important military issues and measures for organising or expanding and reorganising new units ... (and) changing the affiliation of some units and changing the deployment of (others)." KCNA didn’t elaborate.

But South Korean media speculated that the meeting might have discussed the restructuring of military units over the deployment of new weapons the North had test-launched in recent months and what steps it will take in the coming weeks.

North Korea is to hold a higher-level Workers’ 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.”