[Courtesy of Xinhua News]
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has inspected a missile parts factory as South Korea flexed its muscle Wednesday for a sea blockade ahead of United Nations sanctions against the nuclear-armed country.
Kim inspected the Thaesong Machine Factory, calling for the modernization of its production for the development of North Korea's machine-building industry, Pyongyang's official KCNA news agency reported, without saying when the trip was done.
The factory has been known as a key plant manufacturing missile parts.
The trip comes amid elevated tension on the Korean peninsula over North Korea's subsequent nuclear and long-range rocket tests that prompted the UN Security Council to work on tougher sanctions.
A vote on a UN resolution has yet to come, but South Korea's navy said Wednesday it would stage a pre-emptive exercise aimed at intercepting North Korean vessels off the southern island of Jeju.
The UN resolution, if adopted, would represent the strongest set of sanctions imposed in more than two decades.
All cargo going in and out of North Korea would be subject to mandatory inspection, along with an arms embargo on supplies of small arms and conventional weapons.
There would also be a ban on mineral exports, which account for about 40 percent of North Korea's total outbound shipments, and a ban on the supply of aviation fuel including rocket fuel.
Aju News Lim Chang-won = cwlim34@ajunews.com
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
