Kim Jong Un on Monday called for “offensive measures” to protect North Korea’s security, days before his year-end deadline for President Trump to ease sanctions as part of reviving stalled nuclear talks.

During a ruling Workers’ Party meeting, Kim also “comprehensively and anatomically analyzed” problems arising in efforts to rebuild the North’s moribund economy and presented tasks for “urgently correcting the grave situation of the major industrial sectors,” the North’s official Korean Central News Agency said.

“Emphasizing the need to take positive and offensive measures for fully ensuring the sovereignty and security of the country as required by the present situation, (Kim) indicated the duties of the fields of foreign affairs, munitions industry and armed forces of the DPRK,” KCNA said in its report, referring to the North’s formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

The meeting of the party’s Central Committee, which began Saturday, was being closely watched amid concerns that Kim could suspend his deadlocked nuclear negotiations with the US and take a more confrontational approach by lifting a self-imposed moratorium on nuclear and long-range missile tests.

The dictator had also threatened Trump, promising a mysterious “Christmas gift” if the US doesn’t play ball.

The president replied that maybe the gift would be a “nice vase.”

Kim, who had said the North would pursue a “new path” if Washington persists with sanctions and pressure, was expected to announce major policy changes during his New Year’s address Wednesday.

The KCNA report did not describe any decisions made at the meeting or mention any specific remarks by Kim about the US.

The North’s official Rodong Sinmun newspaper published photos of Kim, wearing a white dress shirt and horn-rimmed glasses, speaking from a podium as hundreds of government and military officials jotted down his comments.

KCNA’s Korean-language report said Kim called for “active and offensive” measures.

Kim also “comprehensively and anatomically analyzed the problems arising in the overall state building including the state management and economic construction in the present time,” KCNA said.

“He stressed the need to reasonably straighten the country’s economic work system and order and establish a strong discipline and presented the tasks for urgently correcting the grave situation of the major industrial sectors of the national economy,” the report said.

Kim also called for efforts to improve science, education and public health, emphasizing domestic issues, which experts say appear to be in line with North Korea’s push for a self-reliant economy, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the Trump administration still believed it could “find a path forward to convince the leadership in North Korea that their best course of action is to create a better opportunity for their people by getting rid of their nuclear weapons.”

“We’re watching what they’re doing here in the closing days of this year, and we hope that they’ll make a decision that will lead to a path of peace and not one towards confrontation,” Pompeo said in an interview Monday morning with “Fox and Friends.”

Kim had met Trump three times in two years of high-stakes sit-downs, but the diplomacy has progressed little beyond their vague goal of a nuclear-free Korean peninsula, despite the commander-in-chief’s assertion that the two “fell in love.”

At their last meeting in June, they agreed to resume talks. But a meeting in Sweden in October broke down, with the North Koreans blaming the Americans for maintaining an “old stance and attitude.”

The North said earlier this month it conducted two “crucial” tests at its long-range rocket launch facility, raising speculation it has been developing a new long-range missile or preparing a satellite launch.

With AP