NK leader makes `important conclusion` before potential nuke test

North Korea is inching closer to conducting its expected third nuclear test, with South Korea scrambling to prepare for it as well as potential provocations by the North.

The North`s official Korean Central News Agency on Sunday said supreme leader Kim Jong Un chaired an expanded meeting of the Central Military Commission of the ruling Workers` Party, saying he “made an important concluding speech that serves as a guideline for further strengthening the North`s Korean People`s Army into an unmatched revolutionary army of Mount Baekdu and defending the security and sovereignty of the country as required by the Workers` Party and the developing revolution." The commission is a core power organ of the party. All of the Stalinist country’s top military brass is members of the body, which makes major defense decisions.

In South Korea, the presidential office predicted that the broadcast suggested an imminent nuclear test by North Korea and declared an emergency readiness posture. President Lee Myung-bak visited a war room in an underground bunker of his office, ordering his administration to “check the situation (on the nuclear test) and well maintain a readiness posture,” according to his spokesman Park Jeong-ha.

The chief executive was briefed by Chun Young-woo, presidential secretary for foreign affairs and national security, and Ahn Kwang-chan, head of the Office of National Crisis Management, on signs of the North’s test and potential provocations. A presidential office source said, “The North has completed technical preparations for a nuclear test and is waiting for Kim Jong Un to make a political decision,” adding, “This week will likely be a watershed.”

Lim Sung-nam, the chief South Korean negotiator for the six-party talks on the North’s denuclearization, made a hurried visit to China Sunday afternoon to discuss the expected nuclear test with senior Chinese officials, including Wu Dawei, Beijing`s top delegate to the talks.

shcho@donga.com