SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un held a key policy-setting meeting of the country's ruling party last week ahead of the new year, state media KCNA reported Sunday. 


The "strongest" response strategy toward the United States was declared during the party meeting for the country's safety and national interests, the report said, without providing any details. 


The trilateral alliance between South Korea, the U.S. and Japan has expanded to a "nuclear military bloc" and South Korea has become an "anti-communism outpost" for the U.S., the KCNA report added. 


"The reality clearly suggests which direction we should go and what we should do and how," the report said. 


The meeting, which was held from December 23-27, according to the report, also reviewed the handling of floods this year, including the plan that brought those affected to Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea.


The reclusive state also vowed to promote relations with "friendly" countries during the meeting. 


The assembly of the party and government officials often lasts a few days and has been used in recent years to make key policy announcements. 


The 11th plenary session of the eighth central committee of the Workers' Party of Korea wraps up a year in which Russian President Vladimir Putin held a summit with Kim and signed a deal that included a mutual defense pledge. 


Washington and Seoul have criticized the two countries' military cooperation, including what they say is a dispatch of North Korean troops to fight for Russia in its war against Ukraine. 


Previously, state media had released Kim's speech on New Year's Day. 

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