North Korea plans to spend 15.8 percent of its national budget on the defense sector this year, the country's state media said Thursday, amid growing speculation that Pyongyang will carry out further military provocations.

North Korea said its state budget spending is expected to go up 5.6 percent in 2016 from a year earlier, the Korean Central News Agency said, without revealing the total amount.

An approval of the country's plans on budget expenditures was reached on Wednesday at a plenary session of the Supreme People's Assembly presidium, the North's rubber-stamp parliament.

The KCNA said that its spending on national defense is down slightly from 15.9 percent tallied for last year.

The SPA's decision came as North Korea has ratcheted up its bellicose rhetoric against South Korea and the United States, threatening to make a pre-emptive strike against the allies.

North Korea launched several short-range projectiles and ballistic missiles this month in a show of defiance against U.N. sanctions slapped against it for its fourth nuclear test in January and the firing off of a long-range missile last month.

Pyongyang also warned that it plans to conduct nuclear warhead and ballistic missile tests "in a short time," sparking speculation that it may up the ante and further fuel tensions.

The KCNA then said that the North plans to allocate 4.8 percent of its spending into industries and 4.3 percent to agriculture. It said the portion of spending on fisheries will account for 6.9 percent and that on science and technology will be equal to 5.2 percent of its budget.

Its state budgetary revenue is expected to rise 4.1 percent on-year in 2016, it added.

Every April, the SPA holds a plenary session, attended by hundreds of deputies, to finalize the country's budget spending and overhaul Cabinet organs. But this year, the North's parliament held a smaller meeting led by its presidium ahead of the ruling party's congress slated for May.

The Workers' Party of Korea plans to hold its first congress in more than three decades in early May when the North's leader is expected to unveil new lines of policies. (Yonhap)