North Korean leader Kim Jong Un presided over an enlarged meeting of the ruling party's Central Military Commission to decide on "important organizational and political measures and military steps to bolster" the country's armed forces, state-run media reported Sunday.

The meeting came amid rising tensions and ahead of the looming year-end deadline set by Kim for the United States to lift crushing sanctions or make other concessions in the deadlocked denuclearization negotiations.

Kim discussed "the complicated internal and external situation" and said that "important organizational and political measures and military steps to bolster up the overall armed forces of the country" would be decided at the meeting, the North's official Korean Central News Agency reported.