North Korea has set the US a year-end deadline to offer a new approach to resume stalled nuclear talks.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called at a ruling party meeting for “positive and offensive measures” to ensure security in advance of a year-end deadline he has set for denuclearisation talks with the United States, state media KCNA said on Monday.

Kim convened a weekend meeting of top Workers’ Party officials to discuss policy matters amid rising tension over his deadline for Washington to soften its stance in stalled negotiations aimed at dismantling Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programmes.

At a session on Sunday, Kim suggested action in the areas of foreign affairs, the munitions industry and armed forces, stressing the need to take “positive and offensive measures for fully ensuring the sovereignty and security of the country,” KCNA said, without elaborating.

Kim also discussed state management and economic issues, it said, as the country’s economy has been hit by international sanctions over its weapons programmes. He “presented the tasks for urgently correcting the grave situation of the significant industrial sectors of the national economy,” KCNA said.

The meeting was still under way, it said.

‘New path’

North Korea has urged Washington to offer a new approach to resume negotiations, warning that it may take an unspecified “new path” if the US fails to meet its expectations.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has convened a number of high-level meetings this month [KCNA via Reuters]

US military commanders said the move could include the testing of a long-range missile, which North Korea has suspended since 2017, along with nuclear warhead tests.

Washington would be “extraordinarily disappointed” if North Korea tests a long-range or nuclear missile, White House National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien said on Sunday, vowing to take appropriate action as a leading military and economic power.

The US had opened channels of communication with North Korea and hoped Kim would follow through on denuclearisation commitments he made at summits with US President Donald Trump, O’Brien said.

In New York, United Nations Security Council members are scheduled to hold an informal meeting on Monday to contemplate a Russian and Chinese proposal to ease sanctions on North Korea, a move that some diplomats say has little support.

Russia and China proposed a draft UN Security Council resolution earlier this month that would lift some sanctions in a bid to kick-start the denuclearisation talks between North Korea and the US.

Sanctions on industries that earned North Korea hundreds of millions of dollars a year were imposed in 2016 and 2017 to cut off funding for Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programmes.