North Korea: At a crucial party conference, Kim of highlights his strategy of strengthening defense capabilities

North Korea: According to state media on Friday, leader Kim Jong-un has deemed the nation’s military capabilities strategy a “exact” way to guarantee its security in the face of shifting geopolitical conditions worldwide.

According to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Kim made the comments during a larger plenary session of the governing Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK), which was held in the North from Tuesday to Thursday.

The primary goals of the party plenary conference were to assess the outcomes of this year’s program execution and get ready for a crucial party congress that is scheduled for early next year.

Other information, however, such as how or if Kim evaluated the North’s policy position toward the US and South Korea, was not made public by official media.

According to the KCNA, the North’s leader praised the country’s modernization of national defense capabilities strategy as “effectively and correctly” addressing several security challenges in the evaluation of the 2025 program execution.

According to his assessment, the North’s military strategy is moving “along the exact direction to ensure the security and defense of the country and protect its interests despite the global geopolitical and technological changes.”

Kim said that North Korea’s decision to send troops to help Russia in its fight against Ukraine showed the world how prestigious its army and state are as “the ever-victorious army and genuine protector of the international justice,” according to the KCNA.

The topic of preparing the WPK rule revisions for ratification at the next party event was addressed in relation to the ninth party congress preparations.

As analysts predict Pyongyang will increase its hostility against Seoul in the new year, attention will be focused on whether North Korea would formalize Kim’s “two hostile states” attitude in the party’s regulations, according to Yonhap news agency.

The leader of the North proclaimed inter-Korean ties to be between “two states hostile to each other” at a crucial party gathering in late 2023 and pledged not to seek unification and reconciliation with the South.

North Korea is likely to announce its foreign policy position toward the United States and South Korea, as well as important military and economic policy orientations, during the ninth party conference, which is anticipated to occur in January or February. In January 2021, the North’s last party conference took place.