This picture taken on 28 December 2019 and released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency on 29 December shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (top, L) attending the 5th Plenary Meeting of the 7th Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea in Pyongyang.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has convened a key meeting of top ruling party officials, state media said Sunday, ahead of a yearend deadline for Washington to shift its stance on stalled nuclear talks.

The plenary session, which opened on Saturday, follows widespread speculation that Pyongyang is preparing to test an intercontinental ballistic missile as a threatened “Christmas gift” for Washington.

Kim presided over the meeting which discussed a new “transparent, anti-imperialist independent stand,” the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.

The ruling Workers’ Party of Korea will also “discuss important matters arising… in the building of the state and national defence,” KCNA added.

Talks on denuclearizing the Korean peninsula have been largely deadlocked since the second summit between Kim and US President Donald Trump collapsed in Hanoi at the start of this year.

The opening of the plenary comes a week after Kim held a meeting of top defense officials and discussed boosting military capabilities.

Pyongyang has carried out a series of static tests at its Sohae rocket facility this month, after a number of weapons launches in recent weeks — some of them described as ballistic missiles by Japan and others.

North Korea is banned from carrying out such tests under UN sanctions.

“We’ll find out what the surprise is and we’ll deal with it very successfully,” Trump said when asked about the North Korean deadline.

“Everybody’s got surprises for me, but let’s see what happens. I handle them as they come along.”