Image: Reuters Berita 24 English - Kim Jong Un, the leader of North Korea, told top military leaders to improve the country's defence...
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| Image: Reuters |
Berita 24 English - Kim Jong Un, the leader of North Korea, told top military leaders to improve the country's defences as he ended a key meeting with them on Friday, state media reported. This raised concerns that North Korea might add tactical nuclear weapons.
People paid close attention to the meeting because there are more and more rumours that Pyongyang could do its first nuclear test in five years. U.S. and South Korean officials have said that this could happen "any time" now.
Kim led the three-day Enlarged Meeting of the 8th Central Military Commission, where top officials "approved an important issue of providing a military guarantee to further strengthen the country's war deterrent," according to official KCNA media.
During the meeting, North Korea talked about changing its war plans for the first time in a long time. It said it had decided to give its frontline units "an important military action plan" to help them do their jobs better.
Analysts say that KCNA did not give more details about the plan, which seems to be aimed at South Korea.
A senior fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul, Hong Min, said that North Korea could have added the possible use of tactical nuclear weapons to its new operation plans because it uses the term "war deterrent" to describe its nuclear capabilities.
On Thursday, KCNA released a picture of the North's top leaders at a meeting with a map of what looked like the east coast of the Korean Peninsula, where South Korea's nuclear power plants are located.
When asked about North Korea's meeting, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol said that Seoul was preparing a "firm response" to the North's actions.
The KCNA report didn't talk about North Korea's nuclear or ballistic missile programmes directly, but it did say that Ri Pyong Chol, who has been in charge of North Korea's missile development, was elected as vice-chairman of the Party Central Military Commission.
"Given Ri's symbolic role in the North's nuclear progress, the election shows that the country wants to speed up the development of strategic and tactical weapons," said Hong of the Korea Institute.
An official at Seoul's Ministry of Unification in charge of inter-Korean affairs said that Pyongyang seemed to have released the photo on purpose and is likely to increase threats against the South in the future.
This year, North Korea has tested more ballistic missiles than ever before. These tests have included huge intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), new hypersonic missiles, and a short-range missile that could be used to make tactical nuclear weapons.
Pyongyang tested a new type of tactical guided weapon in April. The goal was to "dramatically improve the firepower of the frontline long-range artillery units and improve the efficiency of the operation of tactical nukes."
