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SEOUL – North Korean leader Kim Jong Un pledged to strengthen his country’s nuclear arsenal when he delivered his closing speech at a meeting of the top ruling party, state television showed on Wednesday, days before Joe Biden takes office. from the United States.
Kim seeks to capture the attention of the incoming Biden administration, analysts say, with his country more isolated than ever after closing its borders to protect itself against the coronavirus pandemic.
A nuclear summit between Kim and outgoing US President Donald Trump in Hanoi in February 2019 broke down over sanctions relief and what Pyongyang would be willing to give up in return.
“As we strengthen our deterrence of nuclear war, we must do everything possible to build the most powerful army,” Kim told the Workers’ Party congress, images broadcast by Korea Central Television showed.
Thousands of delegates and attendees, none of them wearing masks, rose repeatedly in the cavernous place of the House of Culture on April 25 to interrupt his speech with applause.
At the beginning of the eight-day meeting, which has lasted twice as long as the previous meeting in 2016, Kim called the United States “the fundamental obstacle to the development of our revolution and our most important main enemy.”
His policy towards the North “will never change, whoever comes to power,” he added, without mentioning Biden by name.
North Korea had completed plans for a nuclear-powered submarine, it said, a strategic game changer, and offered a shopping list that included hypersonic sliding warheads, military reconnaissance satellites and solid-fueled intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).
The North’s weapons programs have progressed rapidly under Kim, and at a parade in October he showed off a huge new ICBM that analysts said was the world’s largest mobile liquid fuel missile.
The leadership change in Washington presents a challenge for Pyongyang: Biden is associated with the Obama administration’s “strategic patience” approach and characterized Kim as a “bully” during presidential debates.
Meanwhile, the North has called Biden a “mad dog” who “must be beaten to death with a stick.”
Kim and Trump had a tumultuous relationship, engaging in mutual insults and threats of war before an extraordinary diplomatic bromance with headline-grabbing summits and declarations of love from the outgoing US president.
Kim’s latest comments built on his earlier rhetoric in congress and left a door open for dialogue, said Hong Min of the Korean Institute for National Unification in Seoul.
“It is a message to the United States that it will continue to build its strategic arsenal unless the United States changes its course in North Korean policy,” he told AFP.
“If Washington treats it well, it will act well, but if it treats it harshly, it will also act harsh.”
‘Without sense’
The congress is the main meeting of the ruling party, a large political stage that reinforces the authority of the regime and can serve as a platform for announcements of policy changes or elite personnel changes.
At the meeting, Kim was appointed the party’s general secretary, a title previously reserved for his father and predecessor, Kim Jong Il, in what analysts said was a move to bolster his authority.
The official KCNA news agency reported that the congress will be followed on Sunday by a meeting of the Supreme People’s Assembly, the official legislature of the North.
The North’s economy is struggling in the face of self-imposed coronavirus lockdown, chronic mismanagement and sanctions, and Kim repeatedly admitted to party delegates that mistakes had been made.
And his influential sister and close adviser, Kim Yo Jong, indicated that a military parade had been scheduled to accompany the congress.
In a statement released by KCNA, he mocked the “idiotic” authorities in Seoul for a “foolish” statement this week by the Southern joint chiefs of staff about a possible military parade in Pyongyang that he said demonstrated a ” hostile attitude “.
“We are only holding a military parade in the capital city, not military exercises against anyone or launching anything.
Kim Yo Jong appeared to have suffered a demotion in the party congress, failing to appear as an appointed member of the party’s central committee after being an alternate member.
But issuing a statement in his own name is an indication that he remains a key player in Northern diplomacy, having been behind the destruction of a liaison office on his side of the border last year.
Southern President Moon Jae-in negotiated the process of talks between Kim and Trump, saying in his New Year’s speech on Monday that Seoul remained willing to speak to Pyongyang “anytime, anywhere,” including online.
But since the process with Washington stalled, the North has repeatedly said it has no interest in discussions with the South.
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