INTERNATIONAL: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un presided over a meeting of senior officials of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) to discuss ways to improve party organizations and break bureaucratism, state media reported on Monday June 13.

The North's state-run television KRT released still photographs of Kim holding a meeting with secretariats of the WPK Central Committee including Jo Yong Won and Pak Jong Chon on Sunday 12th June.

The meeting came on the day North Korea fired multiple artillery shots between 8:07 a.m. and 11:03 a.m. local time, according to South Korea's military, in another show of force after Kim vowed to boost the reclusive nation's military power.

Kim presented goals to boost the country's military power and defense research to protect North Korea's sovereign rights at the Plenary Meeting of the WPK Central Committee last week.

North Korea promoted its key nuclear negotiator to foreign minister, state media said, as leader Kim Jong Un vowed to his ruling party that he would use "power for power" to fight threats to the country's sovereignty.

The appointment comes as the United States warned this month that North Korea is preparing to conduct a seventh nuclear test, and says it will again push for United Nations sanctions if that happens.

Kim did not mention a nuclear test and offered no details about how he would bolster military power as international concerns grow that he would order the first such test in five years.

"The right to self-defence is an issue of defending sovereignty, clarifying once again the Party's invariable fighting principle of power for power and head-on contest," Kim was quoted as saying.

^{PHOTO: NORTH KOREAN LEADER KIM JONG UN AND SECRETARIAT OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE WORKERS' PARTY OF KOREA (WPK) AT MEETING/ EXTERIOR OF CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF WPK BUILDING}