The First Enlarged Meeting of the Ninth Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party of Korea was held on July 9.

The respected Comrade Kim Jong Un, General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea, Chairman of the WPK Central Military Commission and President of the State Affairs of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, guided the meeting.

Present there were members of the WPK Central Military Commission and, as observers, major commanding officers of the Ministry of National Defence, military and political commanding officers of the large combined units at all levels of the Korean People's Army and officials of relevant departments of the WPK Central Committee.

The meeting discussed important political and military tasks for bolstering up the politico-ideological and military technical might of the People's Army and bringing about a qualitative change in strengthening the combat readiness of the army units at all levels since the strategic orientation, goals and policies for building the armed forces to reflect the present military and political situation and the requirements of the times were set forth at the Ninth Congress of the WPK and the Second Plenary Meeting of the Ninth Central Committee of the WPK.

Saying that the prestige, honour and destiny of socialist Korea are unthinkable apart from the powerful defence capabilities, Comrade Kim Jong Un stated that the security and peace of the country and the people cannot be defended with the will alone and that only when we build the strong army and control all and contain threats with its powerful strength, can we achieve the true peace.

The People's Army should invariably play a leading and core role not only in defending socialism but also in the struggle for comprehensive development of the state, he stressed, saying that the far-reaching plan for and confidence in the future struggle are based on the absolute trust in our army.

He declared that it is our Party's steadfast policy on building a powerful army to turn the People's Army into a strong army united in one mind sharing the ideas and intention with the Party Central Committee and to develop it into invincible armed forces by steadily strengthening its politico-ideological mightiness and spiritual-moral and military technical superiority.

Stressing the need to thoroughly put the People's Army on a field warfare and modern basis and enhance its actual war capability, he advanced the important tasks facing the army units at all levels.

The meeting decided on the issue for upgrading the technical infrastructure of combat systems, bolstering up the nuclear force both in quality and quantity and pushing ahead with the plan for standardizing, specializing and modernizing military bases in a far-sighted way. And it confirmed the specific orientation and ways for bringing about a substantial change in the training sector and putting constant spurs to the revolution in military education.

The meeting suggested tasks and ways for expanding in a many-sided way the functions and missions of the General Bureau of Reconnaissance and Intelligence, which plays a pivotal role in controlling the potential enemies' threats and gathering key information, and enhancing its capability of military reconnaissance and intelligence activities in a radical way.