Kim Jong Un Calls for Stepping Up 'War Preparations' Over US 'Confrontation Moves'

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has instructed the country's military to accelerate "war preparations" to counter "extreme confrontation moves" of the United States and its allies in the Korean Peninsula, North Korean state news agency KCNA reported Thursday.

Kim made his remarks during the second-day sitting of the 9th Plenary Meeting of the 8th Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, which took place on Wednesday. 

"He set forth the militant tasks for the People's Army and the munitions industry, nuclear weapons and civil defence sectors to further accelerate the war preparations, on the basis of in-depth analysis of the grave political and military situation in the Korean peninsula which reached extreme due to the anti-DPRK [Democratic People's Republic of Korea] confrontation moves of the U.S. and its vassal forces unprecedented in history," agency said.