Kim Jong-un holds closed meeting on “further bolstering war deterrent”

Posted on : 2020-07-20 15:07 KST Modified on : 2020-07-20 15:07 KST
Pyongyang convenes meeting of 7th Central Military Commission of WPK
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un presides over the fifth enlarged meeting of the 7th Central Military Commission of the Workers’ Party of Korea on July 18. (Yonhap News)
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un presides over the fifth enlarged meeting of the 7th Central Military Commission of the Workers’ Party of Korea on July 18. (Yonhap News)

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un held a “a closed meeting of the Central Military Commission of the Party [. . .] to discuss the key issues of further bolstering [the] war deterrent of the country,” the Rodong Sinmun reported in a front-page story on July 19. “The meeting discussed and approved major key munitions production plan indices,” the state-run newspaper said.

“The fifth enlarged meeting of the 7th Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party of Korea took place at the office building of the Central Committee of the WPK on Saturday.”

The Rodong Sinmun explained that the closed meeting of the Central Military Commission was held separately “to examine the strategic mission of the major units for coping with the military situation in the vicinity of the Korean Peninsula and the potential military threat.”

“The Supreme Leader signed the orders for carrying out key tasks that had been discussed and decided,” the newspaper said.

Kim discusses “further bolstering [the war deterrent of the country” during the WPK Central Military Commission meeting on July 18. (Yonhap News)
Kim discusses “further bolstering [the war deterrent of the country” during the WPK Central Military Commission meeting on July 18. (Yonhap News)

The meeting was apparently designed to discuss how the Korean People’s Army, as the North Korean military is known, should respond to South Korea-US joint military exercises scheduled for August. The US and South Korea are current reviewing whether to postpone those exercises or go ahead with them.

Another notable passage in the Rodong Sinmun article is one about approving “major key munitions production plan indices.” It is unclear whether those indices include plans for producing not only conventional weapons but also strategic weapons, such as nuclear devices, intercontinental ballistic missiles, and submarine-launched ballistic missiles.

Kim convened the WPK Central Military Commission 26 days after he decided to defer military action planned against South Korea in the commission’s preliminary fifth meeting, held via videoconference on June 23. It was not disclosed whether the deferred plans were discussed in Sunday’s meeting.

The meeting “discussed issues of intensifying the party’s education and guidance of commanders and political officials of the people’s army in line with the Party's idea and requirements “and dealt with “an organizational matter [. . .] on dismissing or appointing commanding officers [in] major posts of the armed forces institutions,” the Rodong Sinmun reported, without providing any details about those matters.

By Lee Je-hun, senior staff writer

Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]

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