During a month of record-breaking launches, North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un visited a location that claimed to be producing "a big weapon."

It was reported by the official Korean Central News Agency that the ruler was seen "inspecting a weapons plant manufacturing a large military system" at a secret location with an entourage, some of whose faces were obscured in the accompanying photographs, on Thursday (Friday local time).

North Korea confirms barrage of missile tests

The ruling Korean Workers' Party Central Committee Organizational Affairs Secretary Jo Yong Won, Central Committee Vice Department Directors Kim Jong Sik, Jong Un's sister Kim Yo Jong-Kim, and some top officials from the Academy of Defense Science were among those who were with him.

"The factory holds a very important position and duty in modernizing the country's armed forces and realizing the national defense development strategy," Kim Jong Un was quoted as saying, as well as "indicated the tasks and ways of continuously developing the factory into an iconic one symbolic of the country's defense industry's modernity," according to Newsweek.

North Korea's string of six missile tests in 2022, which included the most number of missile launches in a month, has been simmering in the background. The launches have sparked worldwide outrage and a renewed campaign by the U.S. to impose more penalties.

On Tuesday, a long-range cruise missile system was updated; and on Thursday, a conventional warhead for a surface-to-surface tactical guided missile was tested, according to KCNA.

The tests were not attended by Kim Jong Un, but a second dispatch reported that he commended rapid progress in developing big weapons to implement the governing Workers' Party's resolutions reached at a summit last month when visiting the munitions plant.

North Korea announced last week that it will strengthen its defenses against the U.S. and will consider resuming "all temporarily paused activities," implying the country's self-imposed ban on testing nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) would be lifted.

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Pyongyang accuses Washington, Seoul of double-standard weapon tests

As a sovereign right to self-defense, Pyongyang has justified missile launches, accusing Washington and Seoul of applying double standards to weapons testing. Since 2017, no ICBMs or nuclear weapons have been launched in North Korea; but after a failed summit with the United States in 2019, a series of shorter-range missile tests resumed amid delayed disarmament discussions, as per NBC News.

After the Biden administration imposed more restrictions following this month's hypersonic tests, North Korea has framed its weapons tests as a lawful exercise of self-defense and vowed more aggressive action.

During a governing party meeting hosted by Kim last week, senior party members voiced a veiled threat to restart testing of nuclear explosives and long-range missiles targeting the American heartland, which Kim postponed in 2018 while establishing diplomatic relations with the U.S. 

In 2019, Kim's meeting with then-President Donald Trump was wrecked after the Americans rejected North Korea's demands for a partial surrender of its nuclear weapons in exchange for massive sanctions relief.

During a briefing, Cha Deok-cheol, a spokesman of South Korea's Unification Ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs, said that the North's missile tests "turn the Korean Peninsula's clock back to the times of tensions and conflict" and the North should halt the launches and return to dialogue.

Some experts say North Korea could dramatically escalate weapons demonstrations after the Winter Olympics, which will begin on February 4 in China, the North's main ally and economic lifeline, Market Watch via MSN reported.

Related Article: North Korea Launches Cruise Missiles Days After Announcing Possible Lifting of Nuclear Moratorium

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