INTERNATIONAL: North Korea would bolster its defences against the United States and consider restarting "all temporally-suspended activities," state media has reported on Thursday, January 20, an apparent reference to a self-imposed moratorium on testing its nuclear bombs and long-range missiles.

Tension has been rising over a recent series of North Korea missile tests. A U.S. push for fresh sanctions was followed by heated reaction from Pyongyang, raising the spectre of a return to the period of so-called "fire and fury" threats of 2017.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has convened a meeting of the powerful politburo of the ruling Workers' Party on Wednesday,January 19, to discuss "important policy issues," including countermeasures over "hostile" U.S. policy.

The politburo has ordered a reconsideration of trust-building measures and "promptly examining the issue of restarting all temporally-suspended activities," while calling for "immediately bolstering more powerful physical means.”