Al Jazeera:

Leader Kim Jong Un has called for the strengthening of North Korea’s war deterrence in a “more practical and offensive” manner in a meeting with senior military officials to discuss the country’s preparations for conflict, according to state media.

The meeting of the Central Military Commission of the ruling Workers’ Party on Monday came amid heightened tensions as the pace of joint military drills by the United States and South Korea have intensified.

North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency said the commission’s members met to discuss ongoing efforts to boost the country’s war deterrent to “cope with the escalating moves of the US imperialists and the South Korean puppet traitors to unleash a war of aggression”.

Click here to read more