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North Korean leader Kim Jong-un speaks at an enlarged plenary meeting of the WPK’s Central Committee, held June 8-10. (KCNA/Yonhap News)

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un referred to the “right to self-defence” as an “issue of defending sovereignty” and reiterated the “invariable fighting principle of power for power and head-on contest” during an enlarged plenary meeting of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) Central Committee, the party-run Rodong Sinmun newspaper reported Saturday.

The meeting, the fifth plenary session of the Eighth Central Committee, was held from Wednesday through Friday at a conference hall at the Central Committee’s headquarters in Pyongyang.

The latest remarks echoed Kim’s reference to “power for power” during the eighth WPK Congress in January 2021, but omitted those remarks’ reference to “goodwill for goodwill” while adding a new reference to “head-on contest.”

His statement read as an indirect declaration that Pyongyang is not anticipating a shift toward dialogue and negotiation as conditions devolve rapidly into antagonism between South Korea and the US on the one side and North Korea on the other in the wake of Yoon Suk-yeol’s inauguration as South Korean president.

At the same time, the Rodong Sinmun report did not quote any specific remarks by Kim at the meeting about Pyongyang’s policies toward Seoul or Washington.

“The current security environment of the country is very serious and the surrounding situation carries a danger of being further aggravated,” Kim was indirectly quoted as saying.

Stressing the “need to steadily direct great efforts to strengthening the national defence capability,” Kim “set forth the militant tasks to be pushed forward by the armed forces of the Republic and the national defence research sector,” the report said.

The newspaper did not provide any information about discussions at the meeting on a final decision about a seventh nuclear weapon test, which has been the focus of major attention. Extending to almost 4,300 words in its English translation, the Rodong Sinmun’s report on the meeting did not include any use of the word “nuclear.”

But multiple former senior South Korean government officials predicted Sunday that the seventh nuclear test would go ahead whenever Kim deemed it to be necessary — meaning that the possibility has by no means gone away.

Also, the report effectively targeted Seoul in its reference to the “struggle with the enemy,” hinting at the possibility of Pyongyang adopting a very tough policy approach toward the Yoon administration, which has designated the North as the South’s “main enemy.”

“[Kim’s] conclusion clarified the principles and strategic and tactical orientations to be maintained in the struggle against the enemy and in the field of foreign affairs,” the report said. The latest remarks substituted “struggle against the enemy” for “north-south relations” in a statement from the WPK’s previous plenary meeting on Dec. 27–31, 2021, which made reference to the “principled stand” and policy directions to be adhered to in “north-south relations” and “external relations.”

Veteran officials with ample experience dealing with North Korea voiced “concern” about the future of inter-Korean relations, stressing the importance of avoiding a situation where the military agreement of June 19, 2018, ceases to function as an institutional safeguard against military clashes between the two sides.

In his remarks, Kim also made reference to the “unprecedented national crisis” and “severe trials” facing North Korea. He went on to refer to North Korea “keeping the trend of development of the overall economy,” a contrast with his ordinary rhetoric that suggested results from the economic plan during the first half of the year have been poor.

He further singled out “farming and consumer goods production as the most urgent of the economic tasks for this year.”

“The fulfillment of the national economic plan means loyalty towards the Party and the people and devoted service to them,” Kim said, while calling for “focusing all efforts” on that plan.

Kim instructed the party and the government to exercise all available resources to calm public distress resulting from the proliferation of COVID-19 and the closure of the national borders, which has now continued for nearly two years and five months.

In addition, the North Korean leader called on the construction sector to complete “without fail this year's important building projects one after another.”

In regard to the “national emergency” that is now in its second month following North Korea’s official confirmation of an outbreak of COVID-19 on May 12, Kim said that the country had weathered an “unexpected serious crisis” and that the government’s battle against COVID-19 was now entering a “new stage” that would combine lockdowns with the “eradication of [the] epidemic.”

According to a report in the Rodong Sinmun on Sunday, North Korea reported around 40,060 new cases of fever, presumably caused by COVID-19, with cases declining for the 11th day in a row. All told, North Korea has reported around 4,432,900 cases of fever, representing 17.5% of its total population of 25.37 million.

By Lee Je-hun, senior staff writer

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