While inspecting weapons research centres on Thursday and Friday, Kim said, “The 9th Congress of the Workers’ Party of Korea would put forward the policy of simultaneously pushing forward the building of nuclear forces and conventional armed forces in the field of building up national defence,” KCNA said.

Kim also on Friday oversaw a shooting drill by the North Korean military and inspected a hospital construction site, KCNA said.

The flurry of domestic activity by Kim follows his Beijing visit earlier this month for his biggest international multilateral event and meetings with leaders such as Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin that raised his international profile.

Meanwhile, a KCNA commentary on Saturday slammed a tabletop military exercise jointly planned next week by the US and South Korea, calling the exercise a “nuclear war drill” and saying it justifies the furthering of North Korea’s nuclear posture.