N. Korea’s Kim seeks accelerated war preparations in key meeting

BEIJING (Kyodo) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un urged the country’s military to “further accelerate” war preparations in a key meeting of the ruling party, pointing to growing tensions with the United States, state-run media said Thursday.

Kim told the second-day session of the plenary meeting of the Workers’ Party of Korea on Wednesday the “grave political and military situation” on the Korean Peninsula has reached an “extreme” due to “unprecedented” confrontational moves by the United States and its “vassal forces,” the official Korean Central News Agency said.

The leader also said cooperation must be expanded with “the anti-imperialist independent countries” to “dynamically wage the anti-imperialist joint action and struggle on an international scale under the rapidly changing world geo-political situation,” KCNA said.

He was apparently referring to Russia and China, which have also been involved in confrontations with the United States.

The party meeting is expected to continue for several days with decisions expected to be released later.