(LEAD) N. Korean leader stresses need for stronger national defense

(LEAD) NK leader-party meeting

(LEAD) N. Korean leader stresses need for stronger national defense

(ATTN: UPDATES throughout with more remarks, other details)

SEOUL, June 11 (Yonhap) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called for stronger "self-defense" measures, saying his country faces a "very serious" security circumstance, according to Pyongyang's state media Saturday.

He delivered the message during the fifth enlarged plenary meeting of the party's eighth Central Committee, which ended the previous day.

Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui has been promoted to the post of foreign minister in a decision made at the session, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.

Foreign Minister Ri Son-gwon has been tapped to lead the party's United Front Department tasked with handling inter-Korean relations.

While presiding over the meeting, Kim said the right to self-defense is a matter of protecting national sovereignty, it added.

He said the security circumstance for the North is "very serious" and "the surrounding situation carries a danger of being further aggravated," as he reaffirmed the principle of "power for power and head-on contest" and urged efforts to accomplish the goal of bolstering national defense capabilities "as soon as possible," the KCNA said.

"And he set forth the militant tasks to be pushed forward by the armed forces of the Republic and the national defense research sector," it added in an English-language report.

But the KCNA did not specify whether Kim made a direct mention of the North's reported plan for another nuclear test.

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