The Japan Times:

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un told the second day of a rare ruling-party congress that he wants to bolster the nuclear-armed country’s “defense capabilities,” state-run media said on Thursday, just two weeks before U.S. President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration.

In a report to the congress, Kim vowed to “reliably protect the security of the country and people and the peaceful environment … by placing the state defense capabilities on a much higher level, and put forth goals for realizing it,” the official Korean Central News Agency said.

Although the word “nuclear” did not come up in his report or in a speech on the first day of the congress, Kim noted in his earlier address that the North had created a “strong guarantee” that protects the “destiny of the motherland” — a thinly-veiled reference to its nuclear weapons program.

The North has not tested a nuclear bomb or launched a long-range missile since last 2017, but experts say the country has continued to build up and refine its arsenal, even after Kim’s three meetings with U.S. President Donald Trump…

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