N. Korea to convene key party meeting next month

North Korea has decided to convene a key ruling party meeting next month to review progress in its ongoing projects for the first half of the year, state media reported Saturday.

The North's leader Kim Jong-un led a politburo meeting of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) on Friday, which decided to convene a plenary meeting of the party's central committee late next month, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

"Kim Jong-un referred to the necessity to convene the Tenth Plenary Meeting of the Eighth WPK Central Committee, which will conduct an interim review of the work in the first half of this year," the KCNA said in an English-language dispatch.

Kim also called for the need to discuss and decide a series of "important" issues to implement the tasks decided at the eighth plenary meeting of the central committee last December, it said.

During the year-end session, the North's leader called for a "fundamental change" in dealing with South Korea, describing inter-Korean relations as one between "two hostile countries."

The politburo meeting also discussed other "important" issues in state affairs and the WPK, as well as received a report from the General Staff of the Korean People's Army on the recent military situation, according to the KCNA.

"The meeting advanced the immediate military action tasks for the DPRK armed forces to creditably defend the national sovereignty, security and interests, and underlined the need to responsibly carry them out," it said. DPRK stands for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

The meeting took place as the South's military said Friday it has detected apparent signs of the North making preparations to launch a military spy satellite at its launch site in the northwestern coast.

The North has vowed to launch three more spy satellites this year, after successfully placing its first one into orbit last November. (Yonhap)