There was a flurry of political events for North Korea this week -- with its ruling party holding a politburo meeting... and a once-a-year parliamentary session.<br />The regime also celebrated six years of Kim Jong-un's leadership.<br />But unlike past years,... there is one phrase the regime excluded from all of its announcements -- nuclear power.<br />Oh Jung-hee has more on the reasons why. <br /> With only two weeks left until the inter-Korean summit... and much progress being made toward the first-ever U.S.-North Korea summit,... Pyongyang made no mention of its "nuclear power" in its major meetings or announcements.<br />Throughout this week,... North Korea has been holding a politburo meeting of its ruling Workers' Party,... celebrating the 6th anniversary of Kim Jong-un assuming the top post,... and it held a parliamentary meeting that's usually held once a year.<br />But these differed greatly from previous years.<br /> The regime often hailed Kim Jong-un's leadership by saying he had developed North Korea as a strong nuclear-armed state.<br />But this year,... Pyongyang rather said it was able to "manifest its strategic position" with Kim's leadership.<br /><br /> The same goes for the Supreme People's Assembly meeting on Wednesday.<br />At the same meeting in 2012, the North stipulated in its Constitution that it's a nuclear state... and in the following year,... adopted a law codifying its possession of nuclear weapons for self-defense.<br />But the focus of this year's parliamentary meeting was its five-year economic development plan.<br /> It even seemed as if the regime did not want to put much weight on the event,... with Kim Jong-un not attending it.<br />He has missed only two sessions out of eight before the one on Wednesday.<br /><br /> South Korea's unification ministry says it's paying close attention to why the regime refrained from calling itself a strong nuclear state,... but assessed this could be in view of ongoing efforts for denuclearization and peace on the Korean Peninsula.<br />Oh Jung-hee, Arirang News. <br />
