Kim Jong Un, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and president of the State Affairs of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, oversaw the artillery firing contest.

The respected Comrade Kim Jong Un was accompanied by Pak Jong Chon, vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party of Korea and secretary of the Central Committee of the WPK, and No Kwang Chol, minister of National Defence of the DPRK.

He was greeted on the spot by Ri Yong Gil, chief of the KPA General Staff, and other commanding officers of the General Staff and military and political officers of the large combined units of the KPA at all levels.

He heard a report on the preparations for the artillery firing contest on the spot and emphasized the importance of the firing contest to be conducted according to the plan of the General Staff.

The artillery firing contest was conducted in the method of examining the capability of each artillery sub-unit in performing the night march, combat deployment and firing attack to an unexpected enemy target in coastal regional environment and conditions in summer, mastering the combat methods in modern artillery war and deciding ranks according to judging the result of fulfilling the firing missions.

The commanders of the large combined units commanded the firing of their sub-units.

The artillery sub-units, which received the order to fire, fully displayed their capability that they firmly consolidated to master the combat manual of our style and punish at one blow the enemy, thus hitting the suddenly-set marine target in the limited time.

Kim Jong Un expressed his great satisfaction over the contest looking like an actual war and the result.

The contest serves as a good occasion showing the practical and fundamental change in the KPA's efforts to round off the combat readiness after the Seventh Conference of Training Officers of the KPA, he said, adding that this positive result is because the outstanding political and ideological readiness of our service personnel has been supported by the scientific combat training system.

The combat capability of the core arm of our revolutionary armed forces should be highly perfect and matchless to lead the way in the implementation of the Party's training-first policy and push forward with it in the vanguard of the entire army, he said, stressing the need to continuously and rapidly develop our-style artillery tactics and combat methods in an innovative way in keeping with the harsh and acute environment of the daily-changing modern battlefield.

He said that the courage, ability and confidence to actively cope with any war and crisis are cultivated in the furnace for the training revolution beyond precedents and limits, and that the comprehensive and formidable combat force capable of defeating any powerful enemy is the guardian's genuine heroism, toughness and feat deserving a gold-star medal.

Reiterating that the most powerful war deterrent is the clearest outlook on the arch enemy, he expressed expectation and conviction that the units at all levels of the whole army would more firmly establish the atmosphere of attaching importance to training and concentrate on intensive training for real war in response to the epochal change of great power in the whole artillery force so as to bolster up in every way their combat capability as a-match-for-a-hundred invincible army capable of immediately coping with a war anytime and destroying the enemy in every battle.

Congratulating the combatants of the 2nd Battery of the 3rd Artillery Battalion of the 16th Artillery Regiment of the 28th Infantry Division of the 4th Corps of the KPA who successfully attained all the goals set in the contest and won the contest with the highest score, he invited the battery to the celebrations of the 72nd anniversary of the victory in the war.

All the artillerymen, who received his deep trust and love, hardened their iron will to remain faithful to the mission and duty of the guardian who guarantees the security of the country and the people most thoroughly and most powerfully with the transparent spirit of defending the country and the revolution.