Military strength means national power, and strengthened military power leads to national prosperity and people’s wellbeing. This is the unshakeable faith and will of the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un . With this in mind, he makes sure that the armed forces of the DPRK are steadily strengthened into elite forces boundlessly loyal to the cause of the Workers' Party of Korea.

Last year alone, he made untiring efforts to bolster up the revolutionary armed forces.

He inspected a number of military units and drills, namely a training ground for major operations in the western area, a drill match between large combined tank units of the KPA, a drill of the KPA paratroopers’ units, a live-fire drill of artillery units in the western area, Kim Il Sung Military University, O Jin U Artillery Academy and a training ground of the KPA's special operation forces.

More than a decade ago, when he started his revolutionary leadership, Kim Jong Un said to officials as follows:

We should not forget the bitter lessons of history that our people learned in the past when they lost their country and were subjected to the misery of colonial slavery because of their weak military strength. It is the stark reality of today that if a country is weak militarily it cannot defend its sovereignty and its right of existence and will ultimately fall prey to the imperialists. Therefore, we should make consistent efforts to increase our military capabilities.

With such a firm faith, he set forth a new strategic line for the KPA on maintaining it as its two major tasks to strengthen itself politically and ideologically and make itself morally sound. He energetically led the effort to implement the line, enhancing the political and ideological might of the KPA onto the highest level.

His continuous inspection tours convey lots of stories. Once, when commanding officers tried to dissuade him from an inspection tour, he told them that he had to go to wherever there were soldiers, no matter how dangerous it might be, and there is the supreme commander as there are soldiers. He then got aboard a small wooden boat and sailed through rough seas to a military post in hot-spot waters, and he even visited a post on Kkachil Peak of Mt Osong, no more than hundreds of metres away from the enemy post.

As he frequented military training grounds and trenches clouded with powder smoke, he said that in wartime a soldier who is exemplary in battle is a hero, but in peacetime a soldier who is good at training is a hero, driving home the mission and duty of soldiers and the meaning of worthwhile life and feats. He set unexpected circumstances to any units and subunits to acquaint himself with their preparedness for action. Thanks to this seasoned and energetic leadership, the KPA has been able to develop into a-match-for-a-hundred revolutionary army.

Every now and then he visited the sites where strategic weapons were developed and tested to bolster up the country’s defence capabilities, and gave defence scientists and technicians the key to success and encouraged them. Such devotion helped the country emerge rapidly as the strongest military power with tremendous defence capabilities.

Last year he successively visited major munitions factories to oversee test-fires of new weapon systems on the spot, and took part in an event to deliver latest tactical ballistic missile systems as part of his steady efforts to build up defence capabilities and enhance the military strength of the revolutionary armed forces.

The military hardware exhibition Defence Development-2024 held in November last year was a significant event that highlighted the dramatic development and brilliant prospect of the country’s defence prowess.

At the Eleventh Plenary Meeting of the Eighth Central Committee of the WPK held in late December last year, General Secretary Kim Jong Un said that holding fast to strengthening its politico-ideological might as its primary strategic task for building itself up, the KPA should develop itself into a powerful revolutionary army that always emerges victorious on the strength of ideology, and train all its service personnel to be genuine patriots, most powerful in their spiritual strength.

With him at the helm of the armed forces of the country, the KPA will continue to win one victory after another. This is the absolute truth the Korean people and service personnel keep in their heart on the founding anniversary of the KPA.

Kim Hyok