North Korea appoints first woman foreign minister as Kim Jong-un doubles down on arms buildup
- Choe Son-hui, a close aide to leader Kim Jong-un, has long handled nuclear weapons issues and North Korea’s negotiations with the US
- At the meeting, Kim also doubled down on his arms buildup in the face of what he described as an aggravating security environment
North Korea named Choe Son-hui as the nation’s first female foreign minister, state-run media reported on Saturday, amid speculation the country may soon carry out its seventh nuclear test.
The appointment was made at an enlarged plenary meeting of the Central Committee of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea, chaired by Kim. The gathering was held for two days through Friday, according to the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
Choe replaces Ri Son-gwon, a hard-liner with a military background who during the meeting was announced as Kim’s new point person on rival South Korea. He was formerly a representative in inter-Korean military talks.
At the meeting, Kim Jong-un doubled down on his arms buildup in the face of what he described as an aggravating security environment.
Kim’s comments published by the state-run KCNA on Saturday did not include any direct criticism of the US or South Korea.
“The right to self-defence is an issue of defending sovereignty, clarifying once again the Party’s invariable fighting principle of power for power and head-on contest,” Kim was quoted as saying.
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The plenary meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party’s Central Committee also reviewed key state affairs, including efforts to slow a Covid-19 outbreak the North first acknowledged last month and progress in economic goals Kim is desperate to keep alive amid strengthened virus restrictions.
“(Kim) said the right to self-defense is an issue of defending sovereignty, clarifying once again the party’s invariable fighting principle of power for power and head-on contest,” KCNA said.
The meeting came amid a provocative streak in missile demonstrations that jolts an old pattern of brinkmanship aimed at forcing the US to accept the idea of North Korea as a nuclear power and negotiating economic and security concessions from a position of strength.
North Korea has a history of dialing up pressure on Seoul when it does not get what it wants from Washington. While KCNA’s report on the meeting did not include any comments specifically referring to South Korea, it said the participants clarified “principles and strategic and tactical orientations to be maintained in the struggle against the enemy and in the field of foreign affairs”.
North Korea has already set an annual record in ballistic launches through the first half of 2022, firing 31 missiles over 18 different launch events, including its first demonstrations of intercontinental ballistic missiles in nearly five years.
Kim may up the ante soon as US and South Korean officials say North Korea has all but finished preparations to detonate a nuclear device at its testing ground in the northeastern town of Punggye-ri. The site had been inactive since hosting the North’s sixth nuclear test in September 2017, when it said it detonated a thermonuclear bomb designed for its ICBMs.
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Meanwhile, Kim during the meeting maintained a dubious claim that the North’s outbreak was easing, despite outside concerns of huge death rates given the country’s broken healthcare system.
North Korea has restricted movement of people and supplies between regions, but large groups of workers have continued to gather at farms and industrial sites, being driven to shore up an economy decimated by decades of mismanagement, sanctions and pandemic border closures.
Kim during the meeting said the country’s “maximum emergency” anti-virus campaign of the past month has strengthened the economic sector’s ability to cope with the virus.
Kim has rejected US and South Korean offers of vaccines and other help. GAVI, the nonprofit that runs the UN-backed Covax Facility for vaccines, believes North Korea has begun administering doses given by its ally China. But the number of doses and how they were being distributed wasn’t known.
