Rodong Sinmun, the main newspaper of the country’s ruling Workers party, ran a front-page photo of Kim Jong-un’s visit to the Weak-current Machine Plant on Wednesday.
Kim was accompanied, among others, by a deputy defense minister and a senior official overseeing the country’s machine-building industry.
South Korean analysts, citied by Yonhap news agency, said Kim’s visit came ahead of the planned test-firing of Pyongyang’s KN-8 medium-range ballistic missile, timed for the April 15 birthday of Kim’s grandfather, North Korea’s first president Kim Il-sung.
“Speeding up the development of indigenous new products is the only way for us to have light electric machine building industry that will be all our own,” Rodong Sinmun quoted Kim as saying.
Kim Jong-un set out the task of modernizing existing machine tools, slash production costs and ensure stringent quality control at the country’s enterprises.
