N Korea’s Kim urges ‘positive, offensive’ security as deadline for US draws near

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has called for “positive and offensive measures” to safeguard the country’s sovereignty ahead of a year-end deadline he has set for the United States to set aside hostilities and take steps towards reviving stalled denuclearization talks with Pyongyang.

At a weekend meeting with top Workers’ Party officials, Kim said North Korean officials need to take “positive and offensive measures for fully ensuring the sovereignty and security of the country,” the official KCNA news agency reported.

Kim also discussed the country’s economic issues, including measures to improve agriculture, science, education, public health and the environment, at a time when the nation is under harsh sanctions by the United Nations and the US over its nuclear and missile programs.

The North’s leader “presented the tasks for urgently correcting the grave situation of the major industrial sectors of the national economy.”

Seoul’s Unification Ministry handling inter-Korean affairs said the meeting — which had up to 300 attendees — was the biggest plenary session of the party’s 7th Central Committee — the North’s key policy-making organ — since its first gathering in 2013 under Kim.

The committee also met in 2018 and in April but in a much smaller scale.

N Korean leder holds top party meeting ahead of US deadline

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has convened a key meeting of top ruling party officials, state media said Sunday.

In spite of the sanctions, North Korea went for diplomacy with the US in 2018 and has since taken several unilateral steps to show its goodwill in denuclearization efforts, including demolishing a major nuclear test site and agreeing to allow international inspectors into a missile engine test facility.

There are now fears that tensions may spike as the end-of-the-year deadline set by North Korea for the US to adopt reciprocal measures and ease its sanctions against Pyongyang.

Pyongyang has already resumed the military tests it had put on hold prior to the collapse of the diplomatic process with the US. It has also warned that it may take an unspecified “new path” if Washington fails to meet its expectations.

Washington, however, has already rejected that timeline. US military commanders have predicted that Pyongyang’s “new path” could include the testing of a long-range ballistic missile.

White House national security adviser Robert O’Brien said on Sunday that administration would be “extraordinarily disappointed” if Pyongyang tests a long-range or nuclear missile.

US watching North Korea closely for possible 'Christmas surprise' missile launch: Report

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He said that Washington opened channels of communication with Pyongyang and hoped Kim would follow through on denuclearization commitments he made at summits with US President Donald Trump.

The two leaders were engaged in an escalated war of insults before they meet at a landmark summit in Singapore in June 2018. The summit concluded with a broadly-worded agreement and was followed by another meeting in Vietnam in February this year. The second summit collapsed without an agreement.

The diplomacy has gradually ground to a halt because of Washington’s refusal to grant any concessions and the two leaders have returned to the hostile rhetoric once again, after Trump referred to Kim as “Rocket Man” on “a suicide mission” earlier this month.

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