North Korean Leader Reaffirms Arms Buildup

In the face of what he described as an escalating security environment, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un stepped up his armaments building, as outside governments keep an eye on indicators of a possible North Korean nuclear test explosion.

In the midst of a prolonged standstill in nuclear negotiations, Kim's remarks at a major three-day political summit that ended Friday did not feature any direct criticism of the United States or rival South Korea.

According to the state-run Korean Central News Agency, Kim defended his rapid weapons development as a legitimate exercise of sovereign rights to self-defense and outlined additional "militant missions" for his armed forces and military experts to accomplish.

The report Saturday didn’t mention any specific goals or plans regarding testing activity, including the detonation of a nuclear device.

The ruling Workers' Party's Central Committee held a plenary meeting to review key state affairs, including efforts to slow a COVID-19 outbreak, which the North first acknowledged last month, and progress on economic goals that Kim is desperate to keep alive in the face of tightened virus restrictions.

"(Kim) stated that the right to self-defense is a matter of safeguarding sovereignty, reiterating the party's invariable combat philosophy of power for power and head-on competition," according to KCNA.

The meeting took place amid a string of provocative missile launches intended at pushing the US to recognise North Korea's status as a nuclear power and negotiate economic and security concessions from a position of strength.

North Korea has spent years perfecting the technique of inducing diplomatic crises through weapons tests and threats before finally offering discussions in exchange for concessions.

During the encounter, Kim appointed a seasoned diplomat with extensive expertise handling US affairs as his new foreign minister, a decision that might have long-term foreign policy implications.

Choe Sun Hui, along with the leader's sister, Kim Yo Jong, is one of the North's most prominent women. She had a key part in preparing Kim Jong Un for his meetings with former US President Donald Trump in 2018 and 2019.

Talks between Pyongyang and Washington derailed after the collapse of Kim’s second meeting with Trump in February 2019, when the Americans rejected North Korea’s demands for dropping U.S.-led sanctions in exchange for limited disarmament steps.

Choe succeeds Ri Son Gwon, a hardliner with a military background who was named Kim's new point man on enemy South Korea at the meeting.

When North Korea does not obtain what it wants from Washington, it has a history of increasing pressure on Seoul. While the participants clarified "principles and strategic and tactical directions to be maintained in the war against the enemy and in the field of foreign affairs," according to KCNA's account on the meeting, no statements expressly alluding to South Korea were made.

North Korea also announced a partial restructuring of its military leadership to accommodate an influx of former counterintelligence officials named to critical positions, possibly as part of Kim's effort to further consolidate his control over the military bureaucracy.

The Unification Ministry of South Korea, which oversees inter-Korean affairs, said it was unclear how North Korea's comments and personnel transfers would effect relations with the South. The ministry warned in a statement that if the North provoked it, the South would retaliate vehemently with its US partner.

The dearth of explicit descriptions of the health of the economy in North Korean state media, save from occasional agricultural and construction efforts, suggests the government is struggling to reach development goals set by Kim in a five-year plan released in early 2021, according to the ministry.

Through the first half of 2022, North Korea has already established a year record for ballistic launches, firing 31 missiles in over 18 different launch events, including its first intercontinental ballistic missile displays in nearly five years.

North Korea has almost completed preparations to detonate a nuclear weapon at its testing location in the northeastern town of Punggye-ri, according to US and South Korean authorities.

The site had been inactive since hosting the North’s sixth nuclear test in September 2017, when it said it detonated a thermonuclear bomb designed for its ICBMs.

Experts say the North's unusually rapid testing activity demonstrates Kim's dual purpose to improve his arsenal while also putting pressure on the Biden administration over long-stalled nuclear negotiations.

While the United States has stated that if North Korea conducts another nuclear test, the prospects for substantial punitive measures are uncertain due to differences among permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. This year, Russia and China blocked US-sponsored resolutions that would have escalated penalties, arguing that Washington should instead focus on resuming talks.

A COVID-19 outbreak spreading across the largely unvaccinated regime of 26 million people hasn't slowed Kim's pressure campaign.

Despite global concerns about the country's inadequate health-care system, North Korea maintained a dubious assertion that its outbreak was diminishing during the summit.

North Korea has imposed restrictions on the movement of people and goods between regions, but large groups of workers have continued to gather at farms and industrial sites, driven by the need to rebuild an economy that has been decimated by decades of mismanagement, sanctions, and pandemic border closures.

During the discussion, Kim stated that the country's recent "maximum emergency" antivirus effort had improved the economy's ability to deal with the infection.

Kim has turned down offers of vaccines and other assistance from the United States and South Korea. North Korea, according to GAVI, the non-profit that operates the United Nations-backed COVAX vaccine distribution programme, has begun administering doses donated by its ally China. The quantity of doses and how they were distributed, however, remained unknown.