The respected Comrade Kim Jong Un was accompanied by Jo Chun Ryong, secretary of the WPK Central Committee, Kim Jong Sik, first deputy department director of the WPK Central Committee, and other senior officials of the Party Central Committee, and Kim Yong Hwan, president of the Academy of Defence Sciences.

Kim Jong Un was greeted by officials of the factory on the spot.

Going round various places of the factory, he learned in detail about the state of production, modernization and implementation of the research tasks for core technology of tank.

The Academy of Defence Sciences and the workers and technicians of the factory, who have made single-minded efforts to carry out the tasks decided at the Eighth Congress of the WPK on setting it as the core goal of the munitions industry to put the weapons and equipment on an intelligent, precise and highly efficient basis and on orienting research, development and production to its implementation, have made remarkable progress and successes in developing Korean-style tanks and armoured weapons and improving their combat performance.

He highly appreciated that thanks to the role of the guidance team of the Party Central Committee and the correct and professional guidance of the Academy of Defence Sciences, more development-oriented prospect has been opened up in the field of tank industry and, in particular, the ideology and policy of the WPK Central Military Commission on further perfecting the core technologies of the main battle tank are being carried on through steady development and production success.

He stressed that to replace the armoured weapons of the last century in our army with latest tanks and armoured vehicles is the most important issue in the building of armed forces and modernization of the army.

He expressed satisfaction over the fact that the field of tank industry upgraded the structural design of Korean-style tanks and composition of firepower system to improve the service convenience of tank crew, proved the scientific accuracy and reliability of design for high-thrust engine and provided a firm guarantee for serial production.

Saying that the traveling and different mobile characteristics of tanks were raised through the development of integrated power transmission device and the new-type active protection complex, passive protection means and the electronics warfare complex were updated in a more innovative way, he praised the scientists and technicians, adding that all successes mean great progress in the core technology of Korean-style tanks.

Saying that today when the subjective and objective environment has changed, it is impossible to build the armoured force properly unless we give a correct definition of the military function, role and direction of development of tanks in modern warfare and reconsider the viewpoint on the tank design first of all, he clarified the main orientation of the modernization of tanks and the tasks and ways for it.

He said that to create the large-scale capacity for producing cutting-edge tanks and self-propelled guns and upgrade the overall armoured weapon systems of our armed forces in a short span of time by stepping up the modernization of this munitions enterprise and relevant enterprises is an important task for realizing the far-reaching idea and strategic plan of the Party Central Committee for bringing about the second revolution in armoured force.

Saying that he supports the plan for modernizing all production processes of the factory in particular, he noted that the plan will be deliberated on a full scale.

He said that the factory, which is in a key position in developing the tanks and armoured forces, should make steady technological progress and bring about an upsurge in production and, at the same time, become a model in establishing the culture in the munitions industrial sector in the new century by paying due attention to improving the labour production environment on an advanced basis.