North Korea launches ‘toughest’ U.S. strategy in key party meeting

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By Hyunsu Yim

SEOUL (Reuters) -North Korean leader Kim Jong Un held a key policy-setting meeting of the country’s ruling party last week ahead of the new year, state media KCNA reported on Sunday.

The meeting of party and government officials decided that North Korea would launch the “toughest” strategy to counteract the United States for its security and national interests, the report said, without elaborating.

The alliance between South Korea, the U.S. and Japan has expanded to a “nuclear military bloc” and South Korea has become an “anti-communist outpost” for the U.S., the KCNA report added.

“This reality clearly shows to which direction we should advance and what we should do and how.”

The Dec. 23-27 meeting also reviewed the handling of floods earlier this year, including the plan that brought those affected to Pyongyang, the capital, according to the report.

The reclusive state also vowed to promote relations with “friendly” countries during the meeting.

Kim also called for progress in defence science and technology to bolster the country’s war deterrence.

Such meetings often last a few days and have been used in recent years to make key policy announcements.

In a reshuffle, Pyongyang named Pak Thae Song, a party secretary, as a new premier to replace Kim Tok Hun.

Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui was named a member of the powerful Politburo of the party’s Central Committee.

The 11th plenary session of the eighth central committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea wraps up a year in which Russian President Vladimir Putin held a summit with Kim and signed a deal that included a mutual defence pledge.

Washington and Seoul have criticized the two countries’ military cooperation, including what they say is a dispatch of North Korean troops to fight for Russia in its war against Ukraine.

(Reporting by Hyunsu Yim; Editing by Leslie Adler and Richard Chang)