North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has inaugurated the Pyongyang General Hospital, nearly five and a half years after construction began.

State media reported on Monday that Kim attended the completion ceremony for the hospital a day earlier, saying the project was foremost in his mind since it was first launched in March 2020, despite delays from material shortages and the pandemic.

In his speech, Kim described the hospital as a core base for modernizing health care, yet he criticized what he called the health ministry’s incompetence and lack of initiative, citing poor staff uniform design as an example.

Photos released by state media showed a large, modern facility with more than one-thousand beds, though diagnostic and treatment equipment appeared incomplete.

Kim also said he will push to build a second Pyongyang General Hospital and new provincial hospitals of similar scale, vowing to report his broader health care modernization plan at next year’s party congress.

He was accompanied at the ceremony by senior officials including Kim Yo-jong, Jo Yong-won, Pak Tae-song, Chu Chang-il, Pak Jong-chun and Choe Ryong-hae.