FILE PHOTO: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un leads a party meeting on strengthening the military in this handout picture released on May 30, 2025, by the Korean Central News Agency. KCNA via REUTERS/File Photo
SEOUL (Reuters) -North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspected military industrial factories, calling them to expand production of shells that meet modern warfare needs, state media KCNA said on Saturday.
Kim visited lines for pressing metals and assembly on Friday, checked the progress of shell production in the first half of 2025, and suggested new tasks for improvement, KCNA said.
"If we are to increase the production of new, powerful shells of that meet the needs of... modern warfare, we need to expand and reinforce our production capacity, arrange the production process more rationally, and constantly increase the level of unmanned production," Kim said, according to KCNA.
In recent months, Kim's publicised moves have focused on strengthening the military and improving ties with Russia, while North Korean state media has mostly stayed quiet on criticisms against South Korea as the latter picked a new liberal president this month.
North Korea has supplied Russia with more than 20,000 containers of munitions, according to a report by the Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team, a group comprising 11 UN members, in May.
(Reporting by Joyce Lee; Editing by Alistair Bell)
