SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has ordered a strengthening of the country’s defense capabilities at a key meeting where top military officials adopted an “important” action plan for front-line troops.
According to official KCNA media on Friday, Kim presided over the three-day Enlarged Meeting of the 8th Central Military Commission.
North Korea hasn’t specified the new operational duties for front-line army units, but analysts say the country could be planning to deploy battlefield nuclear weapons.
Kim during the military commission’s three-day meeting that ended Thursday called for his entire army to “go all out” in carrying out the plans to bolster the nation’s military muscle and consolidate “powerful self-defense capabilities for overwhelming any hostile forces and thus reliably protect the dignity of the great country.”
The commission’s members discussed ways to strengthen the party’s leadership over the entire armed forces and ratified plans for unspecified changes in “military organizational formations,” North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency said.
Tensions are simmering on the Koran Peninsula following joint naval exercises off Okinawa, with the participation of a US aircraft carrier and South Korean destroyers. The US and Japan conducted a separate drill, flying warplanes above waters in the Korean Peninsula.
Earlier this month, China and Russia said the United States is fueling tensions after they vetoed a US-led push for tougher sanctions on North Korea at the United Nations.