North Korean leader Kim Jong-un headed the Fourth Enlarged Meeting of the Seventh Central Military Commission of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK), in which he discussed increasing the country’s “nuclear war deterrence”, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Sunday.
The meeting, attended by ranking officials from the WPK, along with military and security commanders, also discussed “important military steps and organizational and political measures” that will enable the nation to “contain the persistent big or small military threats from the hostile forces”.
“Set forth at the meeting were new policies for further increasing the nuclear war deterrence of the country and putting the strategic armed forces on a high alert operation in line with the general requirements for the building and development of the armed forces of the country,” the KCNA said.
The outlet stated that “crucial measures” had been taken during the meeting for “considerably increasing the firepower strike ability” of the North Korean army.
The recent meeting is considered to be the first public appearance of the 36-year-old leader in over three weeks.
Kim Jong-un appeared at a public ceremony in the industrial city of Sunchon at the end of April, an industrial city of roughly 300,000 just north of Pyongyang, following weeks of rumors that he had died or been overthrown.
Following the 30 April Sunchon ceremony dedicated to the completion of a new fertilizer plant, Kim again dropped out of the public eye.