North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has scheduled a crucial party gathering for December, according to state media, which will outline the isolated nation’s strategic orientation for the coming year.
According to a story published by the official KCNA news agency, Kim made the statement during a politburo meeting on Wednesday, assuring top leadership that 2023 will be a “historic year.”
As a result of Pyongyang’s unprecedented barrage of weapons tests, which included the launch of its most advanced intercontinental ballistic missile yet last month, military tensions on the Korean peninsula have grown significantly this year.
For the first time since the end of the Korean War in 1953, a missile launched during the launch barrage also managed to breach the de facto maritime border and land close to South Korea’s territorial seas. The meeting’s declaration follows months of warnings from Seoul and Washington that Pyongyang was preparing to undertake its seventh nuclear test.
After watching the Hwasong-17 “monster” missile launch last month while carrying his baby daughter, Kim claimed he wanted North Korea to possess the most potent nuclear arsenal. According to the KCNA article, Kim described 2022 as a year of “exceptional difficulties that challenged our determination and combat efficiency” at this week’s politburo meeting.
He continued, saying that it was “extremely crucial… to create creative solutions by utilizing our potentiality.”In addition to the country’s 75th anniversary of foundation and the seven decades since the cessation of hostilities in the Korean War, which ended with an armistice rather than a peace treaty, Kim emphasized that 2023 would be a “historic year.”