AFP, Seoul

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has ordered officials to step up production of missiles and construct more factories to meet his military’s growing need for the projectiles, state media said yesterday.

Pyongyang has significantly increased missile testing in recent years -- aimed, analysts say, at improving precision strike capabilities, challenging the United States as well as South Korea, and testing weapons before exporting them to key ally Russia.

In a visit to munitions factories accompanied by top officials, the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Kim had ordered the factories to prepare for a busy year ahead.

The North Korean leader said they needed “to further expand the overall production capacity” to keep pace with demand from Pyongyang’s armed forces and ordered the building of new munitions plants, KCNA reported.

“The missile and shell production sector is of paramount importance in bolstering up the war deterrent,” Kim said.

Meanwhile, South Korea said yesterday it will reclassify North Korea’s long-banned state newspaper as general information, easing public access, in the latest overture from the administration of dovish President Lee Jae Myung.

North Korea and Russia have drawn closer since Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine nearly four years ago.