SEOUL: The North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, recently convened an important military meeting to discuss bolstering its nuclear arsenal. He has put his country’s strategic armed forces on high alert. It was held in his first known public appearance in about 20 days, as reported by the state media.
Kim has countered rumours about his health by attending a ceremony marking the completion of a fertilizer factory. It was done in early May and it was his first public activity in about 20 days. But thereafter, there was no follow up public activity in making public appearances in about another 20 days by Kim. The state news agency has now reported on Sunday that Kim has held a meeting of the Central Military Commission of the ruling Worker’s Party.
“Set Forth at the meeting were new policies for further increasing the nuclear war deterrence of the country and putting the strategic armed forces on a high alert operation.” It was reported by the Korean Central News Agency. It never reported anything about the venue of the held meeting.
The report said that this meeting also discussed about the possibilities of increasing the capabilities for deterring the “threatening foreign forces”.
This meeting was held amid a very long deadlock in the negotiations with the United States. This negotiation was about the North Koreas nuclear program. The diplomacy between these two countries faltered when the second summit meeting between Kim Jong Un and the US President Donald Trump ended without any agreement. This summit meeting was held in February 2019. This summit meeting ended without any agreement because of the US led sanctions on North Korea.
Kim is obviously frustrated over the lack of progress in this matter. Kim later stated that he would unveil a new strategic weapon and would never be bound by any self-imposed moratorium on the nuclear tests and tests of long-range missiles.
However, Kim has not yet followed through with any of his those threats. But he has conducted a slew of short-range missile tests though.
The main newspaper of North Korea RodongSinmun, released photographs on Sunday. It showed Kim wearing his trademark dark Mao suit and delivering a speech. He was also seen writing down on a document and pointing his stick at a board on the podium.
Elderly military generals, wearing olive green uniforms, were seen taking notes when Kim was speaking. Kim is now 36 years old. Kim speaking was typical in North Korean state media distributed photos.
The South Korean officials said that Kim did not undergo any surgery or any other medical procedure, despite the lingering rumours about Kim’s health.
The Spy agency of South Korea said that it believes Kim avoids appearing in public because of the recent corona virus pandemic. The agency says that Kim had appeared in public for seventeen times this year. He otherwise makes fifty public appearances during the same period of time each year, since he took over power of the country in late 2011.