NK leader-navy visit

N. Korean leader visits naval command
By Kim Hyun
SEOUL, Nov. 27 (Yonhap) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-il recently inspected a
naval command with the country's top military brass, state media said Friday, a
visit that follows an inter-Korean skirmish along the Yellow Sea border earlier
this month.
The Korean Central News Agency said Kim looked around the command of the Navy's
Unit 587 of the Korean People's Army and gave instructions to further strengthen
the country's naval force. As is typical, the report did not disclose the
location of the military unit or the date of Kim's visit.
"The navy holds significant value to our country, which is surrounded by three
seas," Kim was quoted by the report as saying. "Our socialist nation is an
impregnable fortress" with the naval soldiers protecting the seas, he said.
Kim later took photographs with the unit's sailors, the report said.
He was accompanied by high-level military officials, including Kim Yong-chun,
minister of the People's Armed Forces and vice chairman of the National Defense
Commission, and Kim Jong-gak, first-vice director of the Korean People's Army
General Political Bureau.
The Koreas exchanged gunfire along the western maritime border on Nov. 10,
raising tensions across the region. Skirmishes also erupted between the Koreas in
the Yellow Sea in 1999 in 2002.
Kim met with the visiting Chinese defense minister, Liang Guanglie, on Wednesday.
hkim@yna.co.kr
(END)