North Korea’s ruling party military commission has adopted a resolution to strengthen the country’s nuclear forces “both in quality and quantity,” state media reported on Friday, alongside a package of measures to modernise combat infrastructure, standardise military bases, and accelerate the construction of modern naval facilities. The decisions were taken at an enlarged meeting of the Central Military Commission of the Workers’ Party of Korea on Thursday, chaired by leader Kim Jong Un, and include a directive to expand the role of the General Reconnaissance Bureau, the military intelligence agency, to enhance reconnaissance and information-gathering capabilities.

According to the Korean Central News Agency, Kim told the meeting that the nation’s security and “true peace” could only be guaranteed by building a powerful army able to contain all threats. The commission also approved plans to update the technical infrastructure of combat systems and to push ahead with the standardisation, specialisation, and modernisation of military bases. The naval component features prominently: Pyongyang will “accelerate the construction of modern naval bases” and expand shipyard capacity, a move state media described as reflecting a major shift in the navy’s status and role. The meeting follows Kim’s personal oversight of weapons tests aboard the 5,000-tonne destroyer Kang Kon earlier this month, after which he pledged to equip the navy with nuclear arms.

Viewed from Seoul and Washington, the decisions reinforce a longstanding assessment that North Korea remains committed to expanding its nuclear deterrent rather than returning to negotiations. The South Korean news agency Yonhap, cited by Russian media, noted that the expansion of the intelligence bureau’s tasks is likely aimed primarily at the South. The measures unfold against a backdrop of global nuclear modernisation: the Pentagon has announced plans to enlarge and upgrade the US arsenal, the United Kingdom is investing in warhead modernisation, and Russia has updated its nuclear doctrine to broaden the conditions for a nuclear response. Moscow and Pyongyang have deepened military cooperation, and Western capitals have expressed concern that Russia may be providing technological support for North Korea’s satellite and weapons programmes.

North Korea has repeatedly declared itself an “irreversible” nuclear power since the 2019 Hanoi summit between Kim and then-US President Donald Trump collapsed over the scope of denuclearisation and sanctions relief. The country remains under multiple international sanctions regimes, and the Korean Peninsula is technically still in a state of war, as the 1950–53 conflict ended with an armistice rather than a peace treaty. The latest decisions do not specify a timeline for implementation, but they signal that Pyongyang intends to press ahead with its force-modernisation agenda, leaving the diplomatic dossier in a prolonged stalemate.