Seoul, Dec 12 (IANS) North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has assessed the country’s policy on strengthening its defense capabilities as an “exact” direction to ensure its security amid changes in the global geopolitical landscape, state media reported on Friday.

Kim made the remarks during an enlarged plenary meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) that the North convened from Tuesday through Thursday, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

The party plenary meeting was held to mainly review this year’s policy implementation results and prepare for a key party congress set for early next year.

But state media did not disclose other details, including how or whether Kim assessed the North’s policy stance toward the United States and South Korea.

On the assessment of the 2025 policy implementation, the North’s leader touted the country’s policy on modernising the national defense capabilities as resolving many security issues “effectively and correctly,” according to the KCNA.

He assessed the North’s defence policy as advancing “along the exact direction to ensure the security and defense of the country and protect its interests despite the global geopolitical and technological changes.”

In terms of North Korea’s troop deployment to support Russia’s war efforts with Ukraine, Kim said the move demonstrated to the world the prestige of its army and state as “the ever-victorious army and genuine protector of the international justice,” the KCNA said.

In regard to preparations for the ninth party congress, the issue of drafting the amendments to the WPK’s rules was discussed for the approval at the upcoming party event.

Attention will be paid to whether North Korea will codify Kim’s “two hostile states” stance in the party’s rules as experts forecast Pyongyang to intensify its animosity to Seoul in the new year, Yonhap news agency reported.

At a key party meeting in late 2023, the North’s leader declared inter-Korean relations as those between “two states hostile to each other” and vowed not to pursue reconciliation and unification with the South.

The ninth party congress is forecast to take place in January or February, where North Korea is expected to unveil its external policy stance toward the US and South Korea as well as key policy directions on defense and economy. The North’s last party congress was held in January 2021.

–IANS

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