North Korea convenes party meeting, raising fears of new weapons tests

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea said on Sunday that a meeting of top party officials was in session, as analysts in the South and the United States closely watched for signs of a major policy shift ahead of a self-imposed Dec. 31 deadline to end nuclear talks with Washington.

The meeting, called by Kim Jong Un, the North’s leader, was convened to discuss the “harsh trials and difficulties,” the country faces “in the building of the state and national defense,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported Sunday.

The news agency said “important policy issues for new victory in our revolution under the present situation” were adopted as agenda items but provided no further details.

Since North Korea warned of a “Christmas gift” for the United States, officials in that country have feared the North might signal an end to its moratorium on weapons testing before the end of the year.

One of the highest decision-making bodies in North Korea, the Central Committee of the ruling Workers’ Party usually rubber-stamps any policy proposed by Kim, who rules his country with totalitarian control of the party, the military and all other levers of power.
This picture taken on December 28, 2019 and released by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on December 29 shows the 5th Plenary Meeting of the 7th Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea in Pyongyang. KCNA VIA KNS / AFP
After months of stalled negotiations with Washington over ending its weapons programs in exchange for lifting crippling U.N. sanctions, North Korea has warned in recent weeks that it could soon resume tests aimed at boosting its missile and nuclear weapons capabilities.

Kim is scheduled to deliver his annual policy speech on New Year’s Day, when any new policy might be announced.

Since assuming power in 2011 after the death of his father and predecessor, Kim Jong Il, Kim has accelerated his country’s nuclear weapons and missile programs. North Korea has conducted four of its six underground nuclear tests since Kim rose to power. And it conducted three intercontinental ballistic missile tests in 2017.

But at a Central Committee meeting in April 2018, Kim declared that since successfully building a nuclear weapon, North Korea would shift its focus to economic development and halt all nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile tests.

Two months later, he met President Donald Trump in Singapore for the first summit meeting between the sitting leaders of the North and the United States.

North Korea sounded victorious after the Singapore summit, in which Kim promised to “work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula” while Trump promised the North security guarantees and “new” relations. But the mood soon soured when both governments began negotiating the details of what​ incentives Washington should offer in return for the North’s denuclearization and the timeline for doing so.

The North demanded the immediate lifting of key U.N. sanctions that it blames for stifling the growth of its economy. Washington, however, insisted that North Korea first dismantle its nuclear program. The second meeting between Kim and Trump, held in Vietnam in February, ended without an agreement.

North Korea has since ​warned that Washington must offer a “new calculation” and create a breakthrough in the stalled negotiations​ ​by ​the end of the year​. Otherwise, it said, it would “find a new way.” The country has resumed weapons tests, launching 27 mostly short-range ballistic missiles and rockets since May and warning of more provocative tests to come. ​ ​

After Washington dismissed the North’s Dec. 31 deadline as “artificial,” North Korea warned this month that it was entirely up to the Trump administration “what Christmas gift it will select to get.” ​This month, it conducted two ground tests at its missile engine test site to bolster what it called its “nuclear deterrent​.”
This month, it conducted two ground tests at its missile engine test site to bolster what it called its ‘nuclear deterrent ‘

Such threats raised fears that North Korea might resume long-range or nuclear tests, ending the moratorium, which Trump has hailed as his greatest foreign-policy achievement.​ But Christmas ​Day ​passed without any long-range missile or nuclear test by North Korea.

Kim is still widely expected to threaten a harder line approach to the United States during the Central Committee plenum and his New Year’s speech. Analysts fear that such a policy shift could presage more weapons tests and rekindle tensions on the Korean Peninsula in the coming weeks and months, while Trump remains entangled in an impeachment trial in the U.S. Senate and a re-election campaign.

In recent weeks, North Korean officials have suggested that they have all but concluded there was little point in continuing negotiations with the politically vulnerable Trump. They also hardened their position, vowing to keep denuclearization off the table until Washington first revoked its entire “hostile policy,” including ending joint annual military exercises with South Korea.

Officials also reverted to again calling Trump insulting names, such as a “dotard.”