SEOUL, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- Kim Jong Un, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and president of the State Affairs of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), made multiple military inspections, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Friday.
The inspections include a guiding tour to oversee the test-fire for verifying the performance of a new-type multiple rocket launcher, a trip to the country's Nuclear Weapons Institute and the production base of weapon-grade nuclear materials, and an inspection of the training base for special operation force.
During the inspection of the Nuclear Weapons Institute and the nuclear material production base, the DPRK top leader learned about the production of nuclear warheads and current nuclear materials and set forth tasks for long-term plan for increasing the production of weapon-grade nuclear materials, KCNA reported, with no mention of the inspection date.
Kim went round the control room of the uranium enrichment base to learn about the overall operation of the production lines, and visited the construction site for expanding the nuclear weapons production capacity and learned in detail about the daily plan for assembling equipment, according to the KCNA report.
Noting that nuclear threats posed by the United States require the DPRK to steadily expand and bolster up its capabilities for self-defence and a preemptive attack "with the nuclear force as a pivot," he reiterated the importance of maintaining the counteraction posture of the country's nuclear force, KCNA said.
The top leader asked for continued efforts in nuclear weapons production, saying the people in the field "assume the most important responsibility for the historic mission to bolster up the nuclear war deterrence of the country in quality and quantity in a substantial and accelerated way," he was quoted as saying by KCNA.
Separately, Kim oversaw a performance test of the new-type 600mm multiple rocket launcher which was aimed at further developing its driving system and verifying its combat effectiveness, with the rocket shells of the launcher hitting the target on an island in the eastern waters, KCNA said in another report, also without specifying the exact date of the event.
On Wednesday, Kim inspected the training base of the special operation armed force of the Korean People's Army (KPA), during which he guided the scout and raid drills and instructed the combatants to intensify the drills for real war, KCNA reported.
"The KPA should be fully ready to check the enemy at once and mercilessly and completely repress them even if a war breaks out at once today," he said. ■
