Kim Jong-un has opened a party plenary meeting in order to outline the country's priorities for the coming year, including a possible response to the Biden administration's invitation to nuclear disarmament negotiations, according to the Korean Central News Agency.
Rodong Sinmun on Tuesday said that Kim, along with the party's top officials, are set to "discuss and decide on strategic and tactical policies and tasks for action" in order to take "the next step" in the nation's development.
It is unclear how long the meeting will last, but it has been reported that three of the last five plenums took several days.
The North Korean head of state is also expected to deliver a closing speech, which could include significant messages concerning Pyongyang's position on the denuclearisation talks, as in previous years he's used such addresses to express a readiness to negotiate with South Korea or to meet then-US President Donald Trump.
In October, the United States highlighted that it is ready for dialogue with North Korea without preconditions, particularly to discuss denuclearisation and end-of-war proposals by South Korea (as both the North and the South formally remain at war since only an armistice was signed to end the Korean war, 1950-1953).
Kim Jong-un said in June that his country must be ready for "both dialogue and confrontation" with Washington, noting the "policy tendency of the newly emerged US administration". The Biden administration said it wanted to pursue a "step-by-step" approach to denuclearisation of North Korea, particularly in the wake of the 2019 US nuclear talks with Pyongyang that were revived by former President Donald Trump only to fail later.