North Korean leader Kim Jong Un convened a key ruling party meeting on Saturday, state-run media reported Sunday, ahead of a year-end deadline set by Pyongyang for progress in nuclear talks with the United States.

Earlier this month, the official Korean Central News Agency said the country will decide on "crucial issues" at the plenary meeting of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea in line with "the changed situation at home and abroad."

[KNS/Kyodo]

At the gathering, Pyongyang may adopt a resolution ending the denuclearization negotiations with the U.S. administration of President Donald Trump, some foreign affairs experts say.

Given that the KCNA report also said "national defense" is one of the agenda items at the latest meeting, North Korea may decide on resuming intercontinental ballistic missile or nuclear tests in the near future, the experts added.

At a ruling party meeting in April 2018, North Korea formally decided to "discontinue nuclear test and intercontinental ballistic rocket" test-firings.

But North Korea apparently tested a liquid-fuel engine for a long-range ballistic missile twice in December, while it has launched a spate of what appeared to be short-range ballistic missiles since May in defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions.

Pyongyang has threatened to take an unspecified "new path" if the United States does not shift its "hostile" stance by the end of this year, indicating that it may terminate the bilateral nuclear negotiations that started in early 2018.

The ruling party meeting is expected to continue on Sunday. On Wednesday, Kim is expected to deliver his annual New Year's address based on decisions made at the gathering.

At their first-ever summit in June 2018 in Singapore, Trump promised Kim that Washington would provide security guarantees to Pyongyang in return for "complete" denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

The two leaders, however, fell short of bridging the gap between Washington's demands and Pyongyang's calls for sanctions relief at their February summit in Vietnam.

North Korea insists it has already taken concrete steps toward denuclearization, while the United States maintains that the lifting of economic sanctions would require Pyongyang to scrap other nuclear facilities and programs including undeclared ones.

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