North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw artillery drills and a Central Military Commission meeting this week, according to state media on Friday, lauding “modern warfare” improvements while avoiding any mention of last week’s botched warship launch.

In a report without many details, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Kim and dozens of officials “decided on military measures to firmly maintain strategic and tactical superiority in all areas” at the Eighth Enlarged Meeting of the Eighth Central Military Commission (CMC) on Wednesday.

It also said officials discussed “major construction projects of political and military significance” and that “a series of new planning projects in the fields of national defense science and industry were approved.” 

Officials reportedly “adopted important decisions regarding the enhancement of national defense capabilities,” as well as “exercising tight control” over personnel to establish an improved “command system and steel-like discipline system.”

The report did not mention last week’s naval disaster at a warship launching ceremony, and state media has not reported on efforts to salvage the ship or investigate the incident since Monday. 

It’s likely that the discussions included various weapons testing and training plans for this year, as Kim’s five-year military development plan is set to expire before an entirely new set of goals is possibly introduced at the next party congress in December or January. 

Six Korean People’s Army (KPA) corps commanders were reportedly replaced at the meeting, along with the director of the Artillery Bureau (포병국장) and the director of the Security Bureau (보위국장). KCNA did not name the corps or commanders in question.

It was the first CMC meeting in almost two years, after state media reported on the seventh meeting in Aug. 2023. The eighth CMC was formed at the Jan. 2021 party congress.

Photos suggest that Wednesday’s meeting consisted of two parts, with Kim Jong Un setting up a large table in the party headquarters’ building hallway for a handful of top military officials in one part and an expanded gathering of over a hundred officials in another room. But the report did not elaborate on the significance of the venue split.

KCNA photos published on Friday of a KPA “artillery firing competition” held Thursday did not contain clear information about which corps commanders were replaced, according to NK News analysis.

For example, Special Operations Force (11th Corps) commander Ri Pong Chun remained in his role, his nametag showed, as well as 4th Corps commander Pak Kwang Ju, 5th Corps commander Choe Tu Yong, 10th Corps commander Ko Myong Su and 12th Corps commander Ko In Chol.

The photos showed military units firing old-fashioned towed field guns from an unspecified location on the coast into the sea, while “frontline large combined unit” commanders reportedly participated in the competition.

Kim praised the “perfect actual combat capabilities” of the artillery forces and gave instructions on “strengthening the artillery power to cope with the development aspects and changing trends of modern warfare,” KCNA reported.

He also said the drills were part of implementing “the spirit” of the Seventh Conference of KPA Training Officers held earlier in May, which experts said was likely related to distributing lessons learned from the army’s deployment in the last year to fight in Russia’s war against Ukraine.

Friday’s report did not mention the war deployment and instead quoted Kim as saying it is “very important to frequently organize firing competitions that approach real combat environments.”

Kim started deploying over 10,000 North Korean troops to Russia in Oct. 2024, with soldiers reportedly mostly fighting on Russian soil to help retake Kursk from Ukrainian forces. The two countries did not officially acknowledge the deployment until late April this year.

The DPRK leader’s previous public military activities this month included overseeing missile tests, large-scale special forces drills and air force training exercises as well as inspecting weapons factories.

Edited by Kristen Talman