Kim Jong Un’s field guidance visits at “major munitions factories” last week are yet another reminder to the Workers’ Party and the North Korean people of the effort and resources pouring into his five-year military modernization.

State media made clear that the DPRK is indigenously mass-producing several key capabilities. This includes launchers and missiles for the tactical nuclear-capable KN-25 short-range ballistic missile system, the turbofan engines for the Hwasal-1 and Hwasal-2 cruise missiles and launchers for the Hwasong-18 solid-fuel intercontinental-range ballistic missile (ICBM).

The leader’s visits come at the halfway mark of his