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SEOUL, South Korea — The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, in his first public comments on the recent deal struck with South Korea to defuse border tensions, said leverage provided by the North’s nuclear arms program had made the “landmark” agreement possible, Pyongyang’s official news media reported on Friday.

The deal reached on Tuesday “was by no means something achieved on the negotiating table” but happened because of the North’s “tremendous military muscle,” including its “nuclear deterrent for self-defense,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency quoted Mr. Kim as saying.

The agreement ended days of escalating tension on the border, where the two sides briefly exchanged fire last week. Senior officials from both countries had negotiated for three days at the border village of Panmunjom, during which time their militaries prepared for conflict.

South Korea agreed to turn off loudspeakers it had been using to broadcast propaganda into the North. In return, the North expressed “regret” overthe maiming of two South Korean soldiers by land mines near the border, which the South had accused the North of planting.

Mr. Kim took credit for the deal in his remarks, which he made at a meeting ofNorth Korea’s Central Military Commission, the state news agency reported. The North had proposed the border talks “on its own initiative and put under control the situation, which inched close to an armed conflict, thereby clearing the dark clouds of war,” Mr. Kim was quoted as saying.

The report did not say when the meeting of the military commission, a top decision-making body led by Mr. Kim, had been held.

Mr. Kim replaced some of the commission’s members during the meeting, the report said without elaborating. The dismissals were mentioned in a sentence that also referred to extensive flood damage reported last week in Rason, a special economic zone in the country’s northeast. But some South Korean analysts speculated that Mr. Kim might have reshuffled the panel to reward or punish officials involved in the recent standoff and subsequent talks.

Mr. Kim has frequently purged or executed senior party officials and generals since he came to power in late 2011, leaving some posts vacant at the military commission and other important bodies.

The report said the meeting had been called in part to assess the way the North had dealt with the recent tensions. Mr. Kim called the agreement “a crucial landmark occasion” of “putting the catastrophic inter-Korean relations on the track of reconciliation and trust.”

Also on Friday, South Korea proposed to the North that talks be held at Panmunjom on Sept. 7 to discuss arranging reunions of family members separated decades ago by the Korean War. The two countries agreed to resume the reunions, which have been held sporadically over the years, as part of the deal reached on Tuesday.

President Park Geun-hye of South Korea attended a ive-fire drill by the South Korean and United States forces on Friday. The exercise, which took place in Pocheon, about 25 miles northeast of Seoul, featured rockets, artillery, tanks and aircraft, and began with a mock announcement that the North had started shooting across the border.