North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un has said the country’s military power should be boosted, state media KCNA said on Saturday.

Kim made the remarks on Friday in a Central Military Commission meeting, during which he also called for a “high-alert posture” against the “recent fast-changing” situation on the Korean Peninsula, KCNA added without providing details of any military activities planned.

The meeting on Friday called for a “high-alert posture” against the “recent fast-changing” situation on the Korean Peninsula, said KCNA, adding that it also addressed organizational issue of dismissing, transferring and newly appointing some military officers.

Kim discussed “important tasks” to make “a fresh turn in the overall work of national defense,” KCNA said without elaborating on details.

North Korea’s plenary meeting of the ruling party’s Central Committee is planned for later in June.

Kim is reportedly seeking a greater role in government policy making in a bid to upgrade an economy battered by the brutal sanctions against his country — intended to halt North Korea’s nuclear and missile program – and to maintain strict border closures to ward off the COVID-19 pandemic.

This is while Pyongyang has not officially confirmed any coronavirus infections, though South Korean officials have claimed that an outbreak in the North cannot be ruled out since it had conducted trade and people-to-people exchanges with China prior to shutting its border early last year.

The North Korean leader also called on ruling party officials back in April to wage another “Arduous March” of work and sacrifice, linking the ongoing economic troubles to a period in the 1990s of famine and disaster.

The development comes after Pyongyang blasted US President Joe Biden last month for his remarks on North Korea’s nuclear program, rejecting Washington’s talk of diplomacy as “spurious” and warning of a corresponding response to its hostile policies.