North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is meeting with the country’s top military officials to discuss Pyongyang’s defense policies following dozens of missile launches.
The North’s official news agency said today that Kim is chairing a meeting of the Central Military Commission of the Workers’ Party, North Korea’s one-party state, which began on Tuesday.
The purpose of the meeting is to review defense work during the first half of 2022 and confirm “crucial and urgent tasks” to expand military capabilities and implement key defense policies, the KCNA said.
The agency said members of the Central Military Commission began by discussing the agenda that was presented, indicating that the meeting could go on for several days.
The commission is expected to discuss progress in developing new weapons, as well as plans to integrate some of the systems that have been tested in recent months, including an alleged hypersonic missile, a long-range cruise missile and the North’s new intercontinental ballistic missile, he said. to the Associated Press news agency Cheong Seong-Chang, a senior analyst at the Sejong Institute in South Korea.
North Korea has carried out 19 ballistic missile tests this year, a record number.
In March, North Korea tested an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of hitting the United States, violating a 2018 moratorium on major missile tests.
South Korean and US officials said recently that Pyongyang is nearing completion of preparations for its first nuclear test in about five years.
The country, completely isolated from the outside world since the beginning of the pandemic, ignored invitations to resume dialogue with the international community on disarmament.
