PYONGYANG - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Wednesday said his country would continue developing nuclear programmes and introduce a "new strategic weapon" in the near future, state media KCNA said after the United States missed a year-end deadline for a restart of denuclearisation talks.

As the US makes "gangster-like demands" including continuing joint military drills with South Korea, adopting cutting-edge weapons and imposing sanctions, there were no grounds for North Korea to be bound any longer by the self-declared nuclear and inter-continental ballistic missile test moratorium, Kim said, according to KCNA.

Kim convened a rare four-day meeting of the ruling Workers' Party's policy-making committee, started since Saturday, as the US had not responded to his repeated calls for concessions to reopen negotiations, dismissing the deadline as artificial.

He pledged to further develop North Korea's nuclear deterrent, but left the door open for dialogue, saying the "scope and depth" of that deterrent will be "properly coordinated depending on" the attitude of the US.(FA)