N Korea's Kim Jong Un pledges to advance his atomic ambitions in New Year

By Jon Herskovitz

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s plans for the New Year include pressing forward with his nuclear arms program and potentially deeper ties with Russia.
 

That’s according to an address he gave at a major policy-setting meeting attended by top cadres from his ruling party. “He set forth the militant tasks for the People’s Army and the munitions industry, nuclear weapons and civil defense sectors to further accelerate the war preparations,” the official Korean Central News Agency reported Thursday.

Kim also said that North Korea will “expand and develop the relations of strategic cooperation with the anti-imperialist independent countries,” KCNA reported, a reference that likely includes Russia.

 

Kim is arguably at the peak of his powers since taking office about a dozen years ago. Arms transfers to Russia in recent months have likely boosted his sanctions-hit economy, providing enough backing for him to continue avoiding disarmament-for-aid talks with the US. 

Satellite imagery shows a steady flow of trade in recent months between the North Korean port of Najin and the Russian Far East port of Dunay. The US and South Korea have accused Kim’s regime of sending hundreds of thousand of rounds of munitions to Russia to help Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine. Pyongyang and Moscow have denied the accusations.

Kim has also tested more than 100 ballistic missiles over the past two years, increasing his ability to deliver a nuclear strike on the US and America’s allies in the region. His weapons program has made significant gains that included a test this month of a new missile designed to deliver a warhead to the US mainland and the apparent commissioning of a long-stalled nuclear reactor that could significantly add to plutonium production.

In past years, the major policy meeting has ended on the final days of December with a lengthy report that trumpets the country’s accomplishments and lays out plans for the coming year. 

A year ago, Kim pledged to increase his nuclear arsenal to counter what he called hostile acts by the US and South Korea. The nearly 5,500-word report from that policy-setting meeting he left almost no opening for a return to long-stalled disarmament talks.