TOKYO, September 13. /TASS/. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspected the country’s Nuclear Weapons Institute and a facility producing weapons-grade nuclear materials, setting the task of boosting production, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.

During the visit, Kim "acquainted himself with the production of nuclear warheads and current nuclear materials and set forth important tasks for long-term plan for increasing the production of weapon-grade nuclear materials," the report says.

In particular, he "stressed the need to further augment the number of centrifuges in order to exponentially increase the nuclear weapons." In order to fulfill the task of building up nuclear armed forces, the country’s nuclear industry should "not content with the successes and, at the same time, to further raise the individual separation ability of the centrifuge and push forward the introduction of a new-type centrifuge which has already reached its completion stage as planned so as to further strengthen the foundation for producing weapon-grade nuclear materials."

"The security environment facing the DPRK, the peculiarity of the Korean revolution to constantly confront with the US and contain it and prospective threats require the DPRK to steadily expand and bolster up its defense capability for self-defense and the capability for a preemptive attack with the nuclear force as a pivot," the report quoted Kim as saying.