KIM JONG-UN'S CONTINUES PRESSURE ON U.S

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North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has again visited Samjiyon County a month and a half after he climbed the North's sacred Mount Baekdu on a white horse. Kim's previous visits there have always preceded a major policy decision. His latest visit came amid Pyongyang's year-end deadline for Washington to make concessions in nuclear talks. The North also continued to pressure the US, warning that it's entirely up to Washington what "Christmas gift" it wants to get.

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Samjiyon is the first town located at the foot of Mount Baekdu. Kim Jong-un visited this area to attend a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a construction project. His last visit to Samjiyon was 48 days ago. The development of Samjiyon is one of Kim's pet projects. It's the economic site he visited the most since coming to power. North Korea aims to complete the three-phase construction by the ruling party's founding anniversary next October. The second phase's completion was marked in a ceremony on Monday. The North has also extensively promoted Samjiyon as a major transformation and an ideal model of a mountainous cultural city. The regime claims the development of the county is a "great triumph of the nation's self-rehabilitation."

[Soundbite] (KOREAN CENTRAL TV) : "It is a great creation of the Mallima Era achieved through a heroic fight toward self-reliance."

North Korea is taking Samjiyon as the very example of its push to build a strong, powerful nation by overcoming challenges. Pundits believe Pyongyang's determination to walk the path of self-reliance will remain unchanged unless Washington changes its attitude.

[Soundbite] JO HAN-BEOM(KOREA INSTITUTE FOR NAT'L UNIFICATION) : "Kim Jong-un is relying on the notion of self-reliance as a new path forward amid the current stalemate with the U.S."

The North has also continued to pressure the U.S. in an ominous tone. It said that North Korea has done its utmost with maximum perseverance not to backtrack from the important steps it has preemptively taken. The regime added that it's entirely up to the U.S. to choose what "Christmas gift" it will receive. Meanwhile on Wednesday, Pyongyang announced it will convene a meeting of the ruling Workers Party's central committee later this month to make a major policy decision on domestic and foreign affairs. Observers say this will most likely concern some kind of decision related to the approaching year-end deadline notified to the U.S.