SEOUL: North Korea's rubber-stamp parliament has passed a budget that keeps defense spending high despite economic troubles as leader Kim Jong Un pushes for an aggressive expansion of his nuclear arsenal amid stalled diplomacy.

State media reports indicated that Kim didn't attend the Supreme People's Assembly's two-day session that ended on Wednesday. Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) didn't mention any comment by assembly members toward the United States or South Korea in its report of the meetings on Thursday.

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