North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has inspected a firing contest for the country’s military artillery units and stressed that maximizing demand for training is a “shortcut” to building a powerful army.

The North’s state Korean Central News Agency said Friday that Kim watched the contest, held to showcase the skills of artillery subunits within large combined units in the Korean People’s Army, the previous day.

Kim reportedly emphasized that for training purposes, it is very important to organize frequent firing contests that closely mimic an actual warfare environment. 

Praising the war capabilities shown by participants in the contest, Kim reportedly gave a positive assessment of what he called “qualitative changes” going on within the country’s military training activities in conformity with changing trends in modern warfare.

Kim declared 2025 a “year of military training” during his visit to the defense ministry in February and has since inspected various military activities, highlighting the importance of intensive training to acquire modern warfare capabilities.