Kim sets out new goals for North’s military, KCNA reports

SEOUL: Kim Jong Un announced new goals for North Korea´s military in a report to party leaders, state media reported on Wednesday, hinting that sanctions-busting weapons tests will continue next year.

Kim is currently presiding over a major party meeting in capital Pyongyang, during which the top leader and other senior party officials outline their policy goals for 2023 in key areas including diplomacy, security and the economy.

Kim “set forth new key goals for bolstering up the self-reliant defence capability to be pushed ahead with in 2023,” the official Korean Central News Agency reported on Wednesday, without giving any details.

The report “analysed and assessed the new challengeable situation created in the Korean peninsula,” KCNA said, in an apparent reference to the recent sharp escalation in tensions between North and South.

Kim made clear the “orientation of struggle against the enemy to be adhered to by our Party,” KCNA added.

Full details of the current ongoing plenary are expected to be announced when it concludes later this week.